India today suffered a third successive series defeat under Dhoni when the side conceded an unassailable 0-3 lead to Australia following a three-wicket loss in the third ODI here.
"There will be a conflict of interest if I start reviewing my performance. We would have to put a PIL to judge my performance as the skipper," Dhoni said jokingly at the post match press conference.
Enough.
"It is not about the leader. I am captain at the moment and somebody else will come later. It is more important to see the areas we are lacking, the departments which have to improve when it comes to shorter formats.
"We don't have a seaming all rounder so let's not even go to that topic. If you see this series it is a relatively inexperienced bowling lineup. Ishant Sharma has played a lot of international cricket but he is not someone who has been consistently part of the format.
Once again though a top-order batsman's effort went in vain. After Rohit Sharma's two hundreds in the first two games, it was Virat Kohli's turn this time, as his 24th ODI century came in losing cause.
Dhoni lauded the progress Kohli has made in his career, having seen him from a very young age.
(REOPENS FGN 40)
"I always felt he was a top-order batsman and once he got the chance he grabbed that opportunity. Nobody even talks about anyone else at that slot which I feel is the good part," said Dhoni.
Talking about the outcome of today's match, Dhoni blamed poor fielding for the defeat.
India made two changes for this must-win game, with Gurkeerat Mann and Rishi Dhawan handed debuts on account of their all-round capabilities. R Ashwin and Manish Pandey made way for them in the playing eleven.
"So that we could bring in Gurkeerat who could bowl 4-5 overs of spin if needed, and that was the reasoning behind it. We also wanted to see what Rishi has to offer and I felt that he bowled decently in this game. With 2-0 down in the series, this was the only game where we could have made these changes," said the skipper.
"It was an evenly-placed game at that point of time. There was a bit of dew also which meant the wicket would get slightly better. But at the same time, if we would have not given easy boundaries, we would have been able to maintain some kind of pressure that induces a false shot. There were a lot of misfields and that takes the pressure off the batsmen," said the skipper.
