Dropping seniors was a just call: Mahendra Singh Dhoni

New Delhi, March 19: India ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni asserted that by winning the tri-series in Australia, his team had sent a strong message that the young side could beat the best in the world even without the senior players.

Senior cricketers Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were left out of the ODI squad, announced a day after the historic Test win in Perth, but Dhoni said the tri-series triumph had silenced those who criticised the youth-oriented team.

"I was pretty clear about the players I wanted in the side. That`s what I said to the selectors as well. You can see the kind of team I got," he said.

"It`s very important because the process and the timing (of the selection) were criticised a lot. But sometimes it is very important to send the message across, because sometimes people neglect the answer," Dhoni told cricinfo.

The young captain said he told his ODI team-mates to perform in view of the questions being raised about their ability to handle demanding conditions and majority of them having not played in Australia.

"What now? Why are people not asking the same questions now? Because if the result was not in our favour, what would have happened? Would the people have been really behind this side or behind individuals?" an apparently hurt Dhoni said.

"You (the critics) questioned this side but now that it`s performed you need to back it," he said of India`s first one-day series triumph in Australia in 23 years.

"We all knew, and you all knew, what would have happened if this side didn`t do well in Australia. Now that it has done well, why don`t you appreciate the performance?"

Bureau Report