New Delhi: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said on Friday the Indian batsmen were doing well and there was no need to bring a change in the opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.

The following are the excerpts

On the opening pair

I’m happy with the opening pair. Every individual has a different role and I’m doing well in the floater’s role. Sachin and Sehwag opening the innings, Gautam (Gambhir) at number three — all are doing well in their respective roles. There is no need to change when the team is doing well.

Harbhajan Singh’s performance

For sure, he (Harbhajan) is not at his best. But considering the kind of player he is, for someone who loves challenges, I think he is just one game away from bouncing back. We are not worried about players who have so much of international experience.

The prospect of Sachin surpassing 17,000 ODI runs at the Kotla

It would be a milestone indeed. He is such a great batsman… Whenever he walks out, we all expect big scores. He not only scores himself but also guides his partner.

How special was his century in Nagpur

It’s difficult to rank my century in Nagpur since I have got just five centuries (so far). But it was special of course. We needed to maintain a good run rate… I was batting with Gautam after a long time and we converted ones into twos.

The loss in the first match

We lost the first match because we didn’t bat and bowl well. But we took the positives from that match, like Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh’s batting. We won the second match, bowling and batting much better while our fielding also looked much improved.

On India’s chances

We have to start from scratch in every game. With two matches gone, now it has become a five-match series for us and though win brings in confidence, we have to start afresh.

The Kotla wicket

We saw during Champions League T20 that it was slow, kept low and turned a lot. It looks to be a dry wicket. It will be difficult to set a target here. You need to get a good start.

Approach needed

As a team your first priority should be to get off to a good start. If you get off to a good start in the first few overs, then you can set targets like 10-over target. So if the character of the wicket changes you can accordingly shuffle (the batting order) and see what a good score is.