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What's Rishi Dhawan in the team as, MS Dhoni?

Asked what bowling combination he was likely to field in the series opener, Dhoni said: "Most likely it will be a 3-2 combination. We don't really have a seaming all-rounder. Who the players are, we'll have to wait and watch," the Indian skipper said on Monday.

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MS Dhoni seems to have a habit of forgetting players at his disposal. The Indian limited-overs skipper made a rather surprising statement during his address to the media on the eve of the first ODI against Australia in Perth.

Asked what bowling combination he was likely to field in the series opener, Dhoni said: "Most likely it will be a 3-2 combination. We don't really have a seaming all-rounder. Who the players are, we'll have to wait and watch," the Indian skipper said on Monday.

Perhaps, the skipper overlooked the fact that a certain Rishi Dhawan, the all-rounder from Himachal Pradesh, was part of the squad. Or, in the more likely scenario, Dhoni doesn't seem to consider Dhawan as a seaming all-rounder who is ready for international cricket just yet.

Dhoni has, for quite a while now, lamented about the lack of a quality seaming all-rounder in the Indian team for the shorter formats. After persisting with Stuart Binny for a bit, the national selectors decided to pick Dhawan for the Australian sojourn. The selection did raise a few eyebrows, but 25-year-old returned decent numbers for Himachal Pradesh in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season: 28 wickets and 307 runs in eight matches.

Statistics aside, the five wise men probably drafted him into the side to try him out in a bilateral series of little consequence, and see if he can be the answer to India's all-rounder problem. If the team management ever wanted a chance to gamble with youngsters, there was no better time than this series.

However, instead of finding answers, Dhoni given rise to more questions. Doesn't the captain consider Dhawan as a seaming all-rounder? If no, why was Dhawan selected for the series in the first place, then?

This is not the first time the Indian skipper has made a statement like this. In 2009, Dhoni had made a rather controversial remark about Mumbai's Abhishek Nayar, saying he didn't know whether Nayar was a batsman who could bowl or a bowler who could bat. Nayar played just three ODIs before he was dropped, and hasn't figured in the scheme of things since.

One hopes Dhawan's career doesn't go the same way. After all, the youngster, who was eagerly looking forward to showcasing his all-rounder skills in Australia, is likely to feel a tad gutted by his captain's lack of faith in him.

Imagine the kind of hit his confidence is bound to take.

In the press conference, Dhoni also had a word of advice for all the new members who were part of the team for the series.

"Treat every challenge as an opportunity and every opportunity as a challenge," he said.

That applies to Dhawan as well, isn't it?

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