Prefer to rotate players, says Dhoni

Colombo, (ANI): Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday said that he preferred to rotate players, even as the team sweated out ahead of their match against England in the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup tournament in Sri Lanka.

Addressing a news conference here, Dhoni said, "We have a chance of giving him (Yuvraj Singh) a few games. We are in that stage where we can look to do that.

But as I said again the other players who are a part of the side, you know, we also want to give the games to them so that in the knockout stage everybody has played a few games. That is why in the batting department also, we did a few changes so that if the batsman gets to bat a bit and we are not in a scenario where the top three have not performed in all the games and the rest have not got any chance to bat in the later stage of the tournament," he said.

He added that they would make occasional changes in the team so that they have the right combination when they play the crucial matches.

"We are looking to make a few changes into our playing eleven and then go in so that most of the players who are a part of the fifteen, they play atleast one game before going into the next stage. So that will really help us and we will also give some game time to the batsman as well as the bowlers and later on if you are looking to play with the fifth bowler, we will be able to get into position during where we can decide this is the fifth bowler who suits the condition the best and, you know, who needs to get off this side," he said.

Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and captain Dhoni practiced in the nets here on Saturday.

India kicked off its campaign with a 23-run victory over a spirited Afghanistan side on September 19.
Virat Kohli top-scored with 50 from 39 balls in India's 159 for five. India then dismissed Afghanistan for 136 off 19.3 overs with Yuvraj Singh and Lakshmipathy Balaji capturing three wickets each.

Afghanistan played defending champions England on Friday and was beaten comprehensively by 116 runs.
The last match in Group A would be between England and India on Sunday. The two top teams will proceed to the super eight stage.

The fourth edition of the tournament, being played in the Indian subcontinent for the first time, got under way on September 18 when the hosts defeated Zimbabwe.

In addition to Sri Lanka, the teams taking part are Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe.