Underplaying the hype

Dhoni also indicated that the rest of the players battling injuries were on their way to complete fitness. Without mentioning names,he indicated that Virender Sehwag,Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar,who all had injury concerns during and after the South Africa tour,have recovered from their injuries and will be totally fit by the time India play their tournament-opener against Bangladesh in Dhaka on February 19. A few players are suffering from slight niggles,which is always there but nothing serious. Hopefully,nothing major happens to any player, the skipper said.

The World Cup has come in for its share of criticism for being too long,extending for almost 45 days,but Dhoni said a perfect scheduling was always difficult to achieve. As I have said earlier,it is very difficult to form a perfect schedule and format. A tournament schedule will be either too long or too short but I am quite happy with the schedule. It will give us time to recover from small niggles, he insisted.

Dhoni also said that pressure will not be a deterrent in their World Cup quest. It pressure is an added responsibility. Whenever you play for India there is always pressure. But the good thing is that we have a very balanced team. Most of the experienced guys have been there for 5-7 years and know how to handle pressure,while at the same time we have some talented youngsters who can change the course of any game, he said.

Dhoni refused to give importance to the fact that the World Cup was being held at home after 15 years,saying the event was just any other tournament for the team. There is a lot of hype and expectation around the World Cup. But in every series we have played so far,there is always lot of expectation. Expectations will always be there but we need to consider it just as a big tournament, Dhoni said. The Indian skipper said to taste success in the World Cup India needed right strategies and not worry about other factors. It is very important to have right strategy,always be ready with Plan B or Plan C and at the same time not taking any added pressure, he pointed out.

Asked about his preference to bat or chase on the sub-continent pitches,Dhoni said,It is always better to bat first and let the opposition chase.

Sachin,Sehwag get going at net session

On the second day of the preparatory camp at the NCA here,India coach Gary Kirsten focussed his attention on all-rounder Yusuf Pathan and pacer Ashish Nehra. Supervising the net sessions,Kirsten threw a few balls at Nehra at the fag end of the three-hour long session while Pathan faced some bouncy balls to counter his weakness against short-pitched stuff and received tips on how to counter fast bowlers.

Arriving at the Chinnaswamy Stadium,the entire Indian team went through fielding drills for nearly 45 minutes before shifting base to the NCA nets. The trio of Sachin Tendulkar,Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir,returning from injury,were the first to hit the nets and batted for about 40 minutes. Virat Kohli also spent considerable time at the nets and looked at ease but Yuvraj looked out of sorts with his timing.

After completing his session,skipper Dhoni joined Harbhajan Singh and took on Karnataka Cricket Academy bowlers. The India bowlers, meanwhile,rolled their arms in turns with Munaf Patel extracting considerable pace and bounce from the pitch. India will face their first test when they play Australia in the warm-up match on Sunday.PTI