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My best tour ever: Dhoni

By IANS

Brisbane : Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s faith in blooding youngsters at the cost of senior players stood vindicated after the tri-series triumph against Australia, and the flamboyant wicket-keeper said he could not have hoped for a bigger victory to prove his point.

The skipper, held responsible for the exclusion of in-form Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid from the side, was lavish in his praise for youngsters whom he credited for India’s historic series win.

“It is good to have fresh legs in a team, (someone) who is batting and fielding well. It can’t get better than this. We played against the top team in the world. Our team did well in all the departments whether in bowling, fielding. Credit goes to the entire team,” said Dhoni after India clinched a thriller against Australia by 9 runs to win the Commonwealth Bank Trophy.

An ecstatic India skipper described the acrimonious tour to Australia the best he ever had.

“It is best tour I ever had. It was very important for us to win. It is the building stage of our team. We didn’t start off well in the series but we came off well in the later matches but throughout we backed ourselves, enjoying each other ‘s success and that’s is the best part,” said Dhoni.

“In batting, all our players were not clicking but we had to go with it today. The pitch was slow and we were backing on our spinners,” he added.

The 21-year-old rookie bowler from Meerut, Praveen Kumar, who bagged his second consecutive man-of-the-match award in the tournament, scalping 4 wickets for 46 in the gripping second final, also made an impression on Dhoni who believes he is the next big thing in Indian cricket.

“Praveen might not be as fast, bowling at 129 or 130 km on the speedometer but he is skiddy. He can swing the bowl both ways. Today’s pitch was conducive to him and even gave him the bounce. He is the guy to look for in the future,” Dhoni said.