Skipper Dhoni backs under-fire Raina

'It's not easy to straightaway play the big shots. He needs to give himself a bit more time'

'More than the form he needs to give himself a bit more time'

Struggling for runs in the ongoing ODI series against South Africa, under-fire Suresh Raina has got the much-needed backing of skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who advised the middle-order batsman to give himself a bit more time before unleashing his big shots.

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"More than the form he needs to give himself a bit more time. He's gone in and played the big shots. Whenever you go in you actually have more time than what you think. It's important for him to play a few deliveries," said Dhoni.

"It's not easy to straightaway play the big shots. He needs to give himself a bit more time as it becomes difficult to find people who can clear the big outfield. My personal feeling is he needs to give himself a bit more time and everything will be fine," said the captain.

The Uttar Pradesh left-hander was dismissed for ducks in the last two games after scoring 3 in the series opener at Kanpur. He did not have a great time in the preceding T20 series as well against the visitors.

Talking about Sunday's game that India lost by 18 runs after failing to chase South Africa's 270 on a slow pitch, Dhoni said the wicket became increasingly slower as the game and made life difficult for the batsmen.

"In the first half, the wicket played differently and as the game progressed, it became more and more difficult. If the wicket had not changed, 270 was a very good effort by our bowlers. But it became slower and we were not able to play the big shots.

"I thought it was a very good effort by the bowlers. I thought it was a good wicket to bat on, the spinners did not get much assistance but they bowled well. As I said, it got slower and slower there was a bit of reverse swing. The fast bowlers used the extra fielder in the end quite nicely. If the wicket had not got slower, 270 was a par score," he explained.

Dhoni, who made 47 and also added 80 runs with his deputy Virat Kohli – who top-scored with 77.

The Indian skipper rued that not enough runs were scored in the first 10 overs when openers Rohit Sharma (65) and Shikhar Dhawan (13) batted and then between 30 and 40 overs when he and Kohli got together.

"I don't think we got enough runs in the first 10 which was a crucial phase with the wicket getting slower. And 30th to 40th again was another crucial period. We wanted to bat quite late and at the same time we started playing the big shots close to the 37th over.

"But though Virat and I were set, we were not able to connect and play big shots. Also not to forget the outfield over here is big. It was a tough one, especially with less pace on offer and you have to play the big shots," Dhoni said.

Asked about him coming up the order by one rung, at No 4, he said that he believed in not sticking to a set batting order and, instead, improvising as per the situation's demands.

"I want to bat up the order but I also want people who can contribute down the order, so I have to mix and match it. If I have enough deliveries to bat then I can play the big shots. That's the thinking behind it.”

"The other batsmen, we might have to accommodate according to that. They may score at times and may not score but the good thing is they will get experience batting down the order as I feel at times the Indian batting order gets quite rigid. When you bat down the order you will know what are the difficulties," he said.

"I won't say it's easy to bat up the order but they always have the cushion of 3 or 4 batsmen behind them, so you can always play big shots, but once you are batting at 5 or 6 you know No 7 is quite thin and when you are looking to play the big shots you have to back yourself and say I can't mistime this. These are the pressures you experience batting down the order," Dhoni explained.