Adaptability will be key to India's success: Dhoni

Sydney, Feb 7 (IANS) Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni Saturday said adaptability will be the key to success for the defending champions in the cricket World Cup starting Feb 14.

“What is important is to adapt to the conditions and the middle overs. Bowling in the middle overs will also be crucial because that will put pressure on the opposition which will put a cap on the scoring from the 35th over onwards and the slog," Dhoni said Saturday.

"We haven’t had much opportunity to bowl in the slog overs which is something that will come into action when the World Cup starts.”

Dhoni said his team is willing to change the batting order depending on the playing conditions, a prominent feature of the adaptability which he wants his team to have. 

“We have to alter out batting order according to the conditions. Wickets in hands is our strength and once we have wickets in hand we can really exploit the conditions," he said.

"We are not that deep when it comes to batting and are different to other teams. You have to pick options and learn to score runs freely.”

The build-up to the quadrennial event has not been easy for India. They failed to win a single game in a tour off Australia that consisted of four Test matches and an ODI tri-series also involving England.

However, Dhoni insisted that they are looking forward to the warm-up games to identify the players that are likely to feature in the team for the event.

“Even while playing the Champions trophy, we were going through a rough patch. But, the guys stepped up during that tournament and we played very consistently which counts.

We will use the two warm-up games to settle with the playing eleven that will feature in the first game. The warm-ups will be crucial from the perspective of what we want to achieve out of it,” added Dhoni.

The defending champions will play their first warm-up game against Australia Sunday, before taking on Afghanistan in another tune-up game. They will start their World Cup campaign Feb 15 in a high-voltage match against Pakistan in Adelaide.