Dhoni Responds to Atherton on Zaheer Khan for Trent Bridge with “May Be”

Mahendra Singh Dhoni braved a smile that somehow seems misplaced given the scenario that there have been several negatives written about the Indian cricket team in the span of the past four days. Yet the post match presentation talk from the Indian captain showed that while Dhoni had not lost his faith, he has not lost his sense of humour or his habit of holding his chests close to his chest.

Zaheer Khan

While dwelling on the first Test of the India England Test series at Lord’s where England managed to beat India by a healthy margin to show for their all round performance over the past five days, several aspects were discussed as to why India failed to match up. Amongst the many mentions were the obvious ones that involves the injury to Zaheer Khan very early into the match, Sachin Tendulkar battling a viral infection and Gautam Gambhir being injured. However, the Indian captain, after the somewhat lengthy dissertation insisted that India were not going to offer excuses, even while braving holding his own as the former England captain, Michael Atherton, tried to poke for more of an insight into the post mortem of why India lost the match.

Atherton touched upon another sensitive debate of whether India had enough match practice going into the Test series, and Dhoni was honest enough to acknowledge that perhaps a rain affected Somerset tour match was alone not enough to fully acclimatize but the Indian captain was cautious not only to dig into the Indian cricket team’s faults and misgivings in the match.

One of the areas that was badly exposed in the course of the match and too early in fact was how heavily dependent India were on a fit Zaheer Khan. Kapil Dev was not happy with Zaheer Khan’s fitness concerns following the fact that the Indian spearhead, after a good first session on the first day, was rendered unavailable after he strained his hamstring into the second session, thereby not only depriving India not only of a bowler but also, one on whose shoulders India’s offensive rested. The difference was yet again on display for obvious use for the opposition. England who struggled for the better part of a session and a half on the first day suddenly found their feet and although Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar showed signs of coming to terms with the task, it was too late as the horse had already bolted.

India could not even hide the desperate situation they found themselves in without another fast medium bowler to provide relief. Instead Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, chose to trade his wicket keeping gloves for the ball, drawing both, amuse and ire from fans regarding the reverence for Test cricket in the 2000th Test. However, as far as Dhoni was concerned, his fast bowlers needed a breather and if there was no one else he could turn to, there was a job to be done and he would do it himself. But it did bring once again into focus the fitness aspect when Ishant Sharma was bowling rather well to England in the second innings and was given a reprieve after a forty minute lunch interval on the fourth day.

Atherton referred to the speculation that kept floating around, although rather unconvincingly it has been said, that Zaheer Khan would possibly in the second innings of the first Test. Whether it was genuine possibility or the Indian cricket team’s way of calling England’s bluff, Dhoni perhaps sensed that there could be an element of speculation of the latter and decided to play along by answering on whether Zaheer Khan would feature in the second Test at Trent Bridge by responding with a cheeky smile and a ‘maybe’.

While the skipper would not make a comment as confirmation of whether or not Zaheer Khan would make India’s line up for Trent Bridge, given the indication from his injury, three day’s time seems rather short for recuperation which would perhaps open the door for either Sreesanth or Munaf Patel, which would still be concern for India unless the bowlers decide they need to do more to fill for Zaheer’s absence, which as India have found out rather hard and England to their delight, is not easy.