India & Australia Series

[Robert Davidson]

India's ODI and T20 captain MS Dhoni has defended the controversial dropping of seniors like Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid for the recent One-day triseries in Australia and has hoped that India's triumph in the CB Series would silence critics who criticized the youth-oriented selection for the tournament.

In an interview to a cricket website, Dhoni outlined his key role in the selection of the young side while saying it was "sometimes very important to send the message across".

Dhoni told the website that he was pretty clear about the players he wanted in the side. "That's what I said to the selectors as well. You can see the kind of team I got," Dhoni said.

Dhoni said that the time had come for a tough decision to be taken and felt vindicated after the final win. "It's very important because the process and the timing were criticized a lot," he was reported as saying. He recalled that he pointed out to the ODI team the questions that were being raised and told players to perform.

Dhoni made it clear in the interview that the criticism about the selection rankled even after winning the tournament. He also hinted that if India had lost, the "critics would not have stood behind the team but individuals".

[Nickysemilo]

great info... am excited about the next upcoming series... ! keep us update...