Top order has to fire in unison, says Dhoni

Hyderabad:

The frontline batsmen have to fire in unison, and not depend on the lower order, if India are to win Thursday's crucial fifth one-dayer against Australia, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said here on Wednesday.

"Top order batsmen need to bat well and not rely on lower order batsmen. If you are playing with seven batsmen, it's better to get a big score from six of them rather than using the seventh who we call as a backup batsman, especially when you are chasing," the Indian captain said.

"If one of the top-order batsmen gets a big score it becomes easy for us as others can rotate around him. If we have a good start we can get on to a big score so as to dictate terms and play according to your pace," said Dhoni at the match-eve press conference.

Dhoni had blamed his batsmen for India not being able to chase the modest target of 250 at Mohlai, which had helped Australia draw level 2-2 in the best-of-seven rubber.

Dhoni saw Ravindra Jadeja as a bowling all-rounder at number seven and he felt the youngster has done well so far. "He's (Ravindra Jadeja) filling in the space of bowling all-rounder. He's bowling really well. He's batting also is important.

"Batting at number seven is not about getting big fifties or 70s. It's about scoring quickly. And if we are batting second and if we lose wickets every batsman is needed to score extra runs on the board," he explained.