Dhoni confident of good showing in Sri Lanka

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, looking fit and fresh after a fortnight's break, struck a confident note on the eve of the team's departure to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup, which will be followed by a tri-series also involving New Zealand and a three-Test series against the hosts.

While admitting that Yuvraj Singh, who has been omitted due to injury, would be missed in the middle-order, Dhoni said the Asia Cup represents an important tournament vis-a-vis preparations for the 2011 World Cup in the sub-continent.

'It is an important tournament. We will be playing one-day cricket after a long time. We played IPL and then the T20 World Cup. There was a gap.

'We will be playing in Dambula. We are playing at almost the full strength. The conditions in Dambula will be different because it is not a high scoring venue. It will be very important to keep that in mind,' he said at a media conference here tonight.

When asked about changes being made in the team, Dhoni said: 'This is the time that you can afford to make a few changes as you get closer to the World Cup. You do not want to do too many changes in your side. In case you are forced to drop someone due to injury, you bring in a replacement. Once we get a set of players, we want to play with them. This is the time that we can experiment. We have about eight to 10 months left now.'

On Yuvraj's absence, Dhoni opined that although the southpaw would be missed, his absence presents an opportunity for others to step in and deliver. Further, the skipper said Yuvraj was good enough to work his way back into the national team.

Dhoni declined to get into team combination for the Asia Cup, saying it was too early to dwell on the subject considering he was yet to look at the pitch and asses the conditions in Sri Lanka.

'It is very difficult to say right now till you see the conditions available there. It is not easy to predict your playing combination. We do have couple of practice sessions and we will see how the wicket is. I think there is one game that will be played before ours against Bangladesh. We will plan according to the conditions,' he said.