Ravi Shastri cracks whip, pulls up pacers

Ravi Shastri, director of Indian cricket team for Bangladesh tour, reportedly gave the Indian players a dressing down after their humiliating 79-run defeat to Bangladesh in the first ODI, according to the Times of India.

Shastri addressed the players in the dressing room after the match and made it clear that such a shoddy performance was not acceptable.

Shastri was particularly unhappy with the three pacers - Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma - who conceded 148 runs in only 19.4 overs at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium on Thursday. They bowled poorly in every spell even as Dhoni kept rotating them, the report added.

The Indian team director was also not happy with the Indian players’ approach against the Tigers who were hungry to win.

Meanwhile, Indian “captain cool” MS Dhoni, with hardly anything to say in defence of his team's pathetic show, chose to give the Tigers due credit.

"Right from the start they took on our bowlers. That's an approach they have taken quite a few times and they were successful today," the Times of India quoted Dhoni as saying.

The Indian captain, who was fined 75 percent of his match fee for shoulder-charging debutant Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman rugby style, said he was more surprised at the “manner and intensity with which Bangla pacers bowled”.

"I think they did bowl very well. Their execution was brilliant. They knew the home conditions and pitched it in the right areas to be very effective.

"Mustafizur bowled particularly well, used his variations to good effect and was well-supported by the other bowlers. We got off to a very good start and then we kept losing wickets. Our batting was not up to the mark. We can certainly do better," Dhoni said.

Dhoni, however, defended his bowling side indirectly, saying, "If you need to, you have to (bring on part-timers). It was good that Raina bowled the way he did because otherwise we would have had to chase 340 or 350."

"I think the variations that they (Bangla pacers) used was impressive. They mixed up the pace well. And their bowlers got more bounce than our fast bowlers. That was the difference between the two fast bowling units," Dhoni said about Bangladesh bowling attack.