India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday clarified that Sourav Ganguly was "rested" for the third One-Day International against Australia in Hyderabad.
"Sourav has a hamstring injury. He was very eager to play but we thought that incase there is a problem during the match we will be short by one batsman, which would be a big blow then. So we decided to rest him for another match and, hopefully, he will fit by the next match.
"We knew he was fit, but decided that one more match would make him perfect," Dhoni said.
A few hours earlier Board of Control for India secretary Niranjan Shah had told newspersons that "Ganguly was dropped for the match".
Dhoni justified the inclusion of Murali Kartik in the team for the next two one-dayers, saying right-handers find it difficult to play left-arm spinners on slow pitches.
"We felt left-arm spinners play a big role, especially in Indian conditions. If you see the Kochi one-dayer, [Michael] Clarke bowled really well even though he is a part-time bowler. It is very difficult for the right-handers to hit them. So that is the logic behind his selection. And also, he is one of most experienced guys around," Dhoni said.
India's captain said losing early wickets is hurting the team a lot.
"We need to start well with the bat and not lose wickets at the start. If we have wickets for the last 10-15 overs, and looking at the batsmen we have in our side, we can score anything between 80 and 100 [in the last 10 overs] and we have done that in the past.
"Initially, if you lose a few wickets, you are doing a catch-up job and trying to build partnerships. And if you are chasing, by the time you have a partnership, if the asking rate is around 6 at the start, then when you look up to the scoreboard it has reached 7 or 7.5. It is very difficult to score at more than seven in the last few overs if you don't have wickets in hand," he added.
He blamed Friday's loss on the batsmen.
"The blame for today's loss goes on the batsmen, because I felt it was a 300-plus wicket. But the blame will not go entirely on the batsmen because it is a team game and the whole team takes responsibility," he said.
Dhoni also praised Yuvraj Singh, who smashed a blazing 121, but ended up on the losing side.
"Yuvraj believes in the team's victory, whether he scores runs or not. His form recently has been very good. He was amazing in the Twenty20 World Cup and again today, here, we just need a few batsmen to chip in too and that will really help the team," he said.
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