Kolkata: The grueling demands of the Indian Premier League has forced older players to be fitter and on their toes, feels India's ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
"This form of the game is very demanding. In a T20 match you need to have eighty per cent of the energy you need in an entire one-day international," Dhoni told newspersons here on Saturday. Continue reading below
Dhoni was responding to a query whether senior players had been pushed on to their toes by the T20 matches.
"That's the demand of the game, they have to," the Chennai Super Kings skipper said on the eve of their match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Harping on his 'mantra' of fitness for ODI and T-20 games, Dhoni said, "It is not a question of young or old. It is a question of being fit. The shorter version of the game demands fit players."
Dhoni had courted controversy a few months ago for backing young and fit players during India's triangular one-day series down under involving Australia and Sri Lanka.
The dashing wicket-keeper batsman said there was no point complaining about the rigorous schedule of IPL matches under oppressive conditions.
"Everybody is aware of the conditions. There is no point complaining. The schedule was given to every team in advance," he said adding "We have to play as per the schedule and give our best. That's the bottom line."
Dhoni predicted keen contest in the remaining matches of the IPL in the lead up to the semifinals.
"The IPL has entered a crucial phase. The teams which were at a sniffing distance from the semi-finals will go all out and try to win every match here on."
"It makes the competition very exciting and our idea will be to win," he said.
Asked to name the side he was most impressed with in the IPL, Dhoni said that such distinctions could not be made in a T-20 tournament.
"It depends on the player's performance on a given day."
Dhoni did not think the mauling Kolkata Knight Riders received at the hands of the Mumbai Indians at Mumbai on Friday would give his team any psychological edge.
"In T20, every day is a new day, every game is a new game. It really doesn't matter how you performed in the last match. It depends on how quickly you get over the defeat and regroup," Dhoni said.
