Dravid praises Dhoni and Zaheer

Just a day after leading his side to a five wicket win over Sri Lanka, in a game that included his 10,000th ODI run, Indian captain Rahul Dravid has thrown his support behind Virender Sehwag and was full of praise for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan.

Dravid, 34, asked the critics to give out-of-form batsman Virender Sehwag more time to get his game back on track.

“We would like to see him scoring more runs and I am sure he will make it. Give him some time,” Dravid said at a press conference.

Dravid also praised wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, saying he had matured greatly over the past year.

“He has a mature head. He plays different cricket for different situations. If we need a quickfire innings, he plays that and if we need a controlled innings he plays that,” he said after Dhoni scored an unbeaten 67 to guide his side to victory yesterday.

However, the skipper saved his highest praise for Zaheer Khan who took a career best 5-42 in a man of the match performance against the Sri Lankans.

“Zaheer put up a brilliant effort and was given good support by Munaf Patel and Agarkar. The first three wickets by Zaheer put the pressure on the Sri Lankans,” he said.

“These three boys are very important for us in the world Cup. These are our key players. Zaheer is one of them. I just hope he’s peaking at the right time. I would have liked to bat first as well. But after Zaheer bowled a brilliant spell to get them down to 6-3, I wasn’t disappointed then.”

India take on Sri Lanka in the final ODI of their four match series on the 17th of February at Visakhapatnam.