'We are not getting the right support from fans': Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni: wants support from fans when the going isn't smooth © Getty Images

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian wicketkeeper, said the Indian team was not receiving the kind of support sportspersons needed, especially when they were going through a bad phase. Dhoni refused to elaborate but hinted at the boorish crowd behaviour in the Test match against England at Mumbai last week.

"We are not getting the support we want from our fans, particularly when things are not going well for us. I can understand if we are playing abroad, the support is going to be less for us there. When we are playing in India, we expect good support for us. It helps if you back us strongly," Dhoni said at a function to felicitate him in Delhi.

"I don't want to be specific but you know what happened in Mumbai and here [in the first one-dayer in Delhi]," he added.

Dhoni got out to a rash shot in India's second innings in Mumbai as the hosts capitulated to a 212-run defeat but said he would not change his style of batting, though. "No, I won't. I would say I should have batted like I did in the first innings," when he scored a responsible 118-ball 64 that helped India recover from 142 for 5 to post 279.

Asked if the team's collective failure and his shot selection on the last day at Mumbai resulted in his slow batting in the first one-dayer at Feroz Shah Kotla, Dhoni replied in the negative. "It was just that Harbhajan was playing well and I had played only 20-30 balls," he said. "There should not be an impression that if I am a strokemaker I have to play my strokes. If somebody is playing shots, I can go slow. Even the ball I got out, I was trying to keep it to the ground. That's why I actually got out."

So, how does one keep playing his shots when the situation demands a bit of caution? "I cannot exactly put it in words. I cannot say what happens when you are under pressure. It cannot be easily explained."