Dhoni apologises, admits promoting Jadeja a mistake

LONDON: Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni apologized to the nation for his champion team's early ouster from the T20 World Cup and admitted sending Ravindra Jadeja ahead of Yuvraj Singh in their Super 8 match against England was a mistake.

"We are more disappointed (than you) and we respect the emotions of our fans and the country. We gave our best and we say that with an open heart, we have nothing to hide. But the next Twenty20 world cup is coming again in nine months and we would have an opportunity of proving ourselves," said a dejected Dhoni after India's heart-breaking three-run loss at Lord's. Dhoni, however, defended his decision to include Jadeja in the playing eleven in place of Pragyan Ojha, as well as his opting to field after winning the toss.

"We were looking at a combination in which our batting could be lengthened. We need lower order bats to contribute.

Ojha may be a better bowler but Jadeja is an excellent fielder and both bat and bowl well. It also encourages us to include an extra fast bowler," he said.

"As for fielding first, we realized that under lights the wicket became better for batting."

The India captain held his batting colleagues responsible for the team's loss and said there cannot be any excuse for their failure to chase down a modest target of 154.

"We failed in batting. If the opposition scores 153 and you cannot achieve that on a track like this, I don't think there can be any excuse. Dhoni, however, had words of praise for his bowlers for fine-tuning their tactics in Twenty20 format.

"The bowlers have adapted very well to this format. They are now bowling a lot of short balls as well as slower bouncers. Sometimes against quality bowlers it becomes difficult to adapt," said Dhoni.

On his own form, Dhoni admitted big hitting has deserted him for some time and he is working hard to get big shots boom off his bat again.

"I am not consistently hitting sixes, I admit it and am working hard at it. But this game is just not about hitting sixes. But hopefully I would be back."

He denied that playing relentless cricket over the last six months had impacted on team performance.

"It's demanding but I wouldn't offer it as excuse. I wouldn't blame IPL.