Dhoni satisfied with WC preparation despite defeats

MS Dhoni, the India captain, said his players' lack of fitness during the course of the Carlton Mid tri-series put paid to their hopes of making Sunday's final against Australia. India were humbled by England in their last league game by three wickets at Perth, ending their Australia tour without a victory.

"To carry momentum into the World Cup is very crucial but more importantly we need all the 15 guys in the squad to be fit. In this tournament not all were fit," Dhoni said after the match on Friday.

India had begun strongly reaching 83 for no loss but lost wickets in quick intervals to be bowled out for 200, a target England found difficult to chase as they were also reduced to 66 for 5 at one stage. But half-centuries from James Taylor and Jos Buttler took England over the line.

Injuries to Ishant Sharma, who missed the tri-series, and Ravindra Jadeja, who only took part in two matches, allowed India to give some of their other players a look-in, which Dhoni was satisfied with. "Getting into a tournament like the World Cup, it's important that all of them have some kind of games behind them," he said. "Now in the coming warm-up games also, we will try to give as many people chances as possible so that we get a look at what the conditions they may face and what the opposition is."

Despite putting in strong performances with the bat during the Test series, India struggled throughout the tri-series to put up strong totals but Dhoni wasn't worried about it despite the defence of their World Cup title two weeks away. "From a confidence point of view we are quite good," he said. "It has been a long tour so far but with this break now, it will really help us. The guys should be able to come back strong."

India's opening woes were somewhat banished as Shikhar Dhawan, struggling for form throughout the Australian summer, scored 38 in an opening stand of 83 before being dismissed. "It is important that all your guys are in decent kind of form," he said. "Now with this game, he (Dhawan) will certainly take a lot of positives out of it because there was a bit of assistance for the fast bowlers and it was not an easy wicket to bat on initially. I felt he did good and the next step will be to capitalise on the kind of start he got."

"It will be important for most of us to capitalise on starts, have wickets in hand and look to exploit because the middle-order batting will be crucial. We might not get 100-120 runs in the last 10 overs everytime, we might be restricted to just 80-odd."