Match against Pak was one of the best: Dhoni

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has described India’s warm up clash against Pakistan ahead of T20 World Cup as one of the best matches they have played but reckons that doing an encore in future would be difficult.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has described India’s warm up clash against Pakistan ahead of T20 World Cup as one of the best matches they have played but reckons that doing an encore in future would be difficult.

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“It was one of the best games but difficult to replicate it in future,” said Dhoni after his side thrashed Pakistan by nine-wickets in front of a sold-out crowd at the Oval on Wednesday night.

Openers Rohit Sharma (80) and Gautam Gambhir (52) nearly knocked off the required 159 runs between them alone, a performance which would send shudders down the spine of other teams.

Dhoni was unwilling to confirm if Sharma has booked his place in the squad even if Sehwag recovers from his shoulder injury in coming days.

“It’s difficult to say, injuries being injuries...I don’t want to speculate about it now.”

There was no ambiguity about Zaheer Khan though as Dhoni said the left-arm paceman is definitely out of the opening game against Bangladesh on Friday and could also be out of the final league game against Ireland on June 10.

“Zaheer has started bowling and signs are encouraging but we don’t want to take any risks,” he explained.