“Regrouping is no worry. Sometimes, we just have to respect the schedule and play with what is available. There is no point complaining. The IPL finished on the 25th and we have assembled a day later. We literally have one whole day of flying time with several connecting flights. Then we go there and have two or three days to practice. I think that’s more than enough. We play together for almost 250 or 300 days in a year. Regrouping is not a concern,” said Dhoni.

He must have chosen to embark upon the World T20 campaign scandal free. Interestingly, both the captain and coach’s explosive “team was tired and didn’t get time to regroup” comments, post the team’s nightmarish campaign in last year’s World T20 in England, hadn’t pleased the BCCI.

In 2010, the Indian skipper has no such concerns. Even the lack of form of his biggest match-winner, Yuvraj Singh, isn’t a problem for him.

“Yuvraj is a great player and is one of the biggest hitters in T20. He can also contribute with the ball. He has not scored too many runs in the IPL, but it’s nothing to worry about because in T20, you are just five or 10 balls away from getting back into form.”

The 28-year-old flashed his disarming smile. Was he thanking his lucky stars that everyone in his team is fit and there could be no repeat of the Sehwag and Zaheer episode in England? “As of now, we haven’t received any medical report which says that any player is injured. I’m glad that nobody is injured,” he said.

The IPL-winning captain is hoping that the winning touch stays with him till May 16. But for that, he will need some luck with the kind of wickets that are dished out. India will be hoping that the pitches afford turn so that Dhoni can employ the tactic of opening with spin, something that he did consistently and successfully in the IPL. Would he do the same in West Indies?

“It’s definitely an option. We have a couple of players in Harbhajan Singh and Yusuf Pathan who have consistently bowled in the first six overs in the IPL. We also have very good part-timers in the team. Yusuf and Jadeja can be called specialist spinners. Hopefully, as the tournament progresses, the wickets will get slower,” he stated.

“We are sorry for what happened but we can say we gave our best,” Dhoni said after losing to England by three wickets before thousands of Indian supporters at Lord’s cricket ground in London.

“We had experienced guys who can handle the pressure. It was a day when nothing much worked for us.”

“India is an emotional country,” Dhoni said, adding: “We are more disappointed than them (Indian fans).”

But Dhoni denied repeated suggestions at the press conference that Indian players were exhausted from playing too many matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“You can’t blame it on tiredness. It’s not an excuse,” the Indian skipper said, adding playing more matches was better for players.

“It is a demanding format because you play at different venues. It’s not like you play three or four games at the same point,” he said.

“If you see me and say he’s not giving his hundred percent then hold me responsible. Performance is a different matter.”

“We didn’t really perform well as a team.”

Dhoni, however, admitted that he was failing to fire his guns while batting, having scored only three boundaries and not a single six in a knock of 30 Sunday that was relatively sedate by his explosive standards.

“I’m not comfortably clearing the park – that’s for sure. I’m working hard on it, and hopefully I’ll be back with hitting sixes.”

Dhoni said he elected to field after winning the toss because the wicket plays “a bit better” under the lights.

He gave credit to England’s battery of pace bowlers, who fired a steady stream of short-pitched shoulder-high balls at the Indian batsmen, working to a game plan.

“Their bowlers started well. They were aggressive and used the bouncer and the short ball well,” Dhoni said.

“They bowled the bouncer really well. They used the short balls and mixed them with slower bouncers. There are quite a few lessons to be learnt from this, hopefully during the time we have off from here, we can really look to work on this area.”

“The run rate climbed and the timing of the wickets was crucial. We failed with the bat. There is no excuse.”

He said the decision to promote Ravindra Jadeja in the batting order was taken to help stabilize the Indian innings.

“Yuvraj could have gone in higher but we expected Jadeja to play for a few overs and stabilize the innings for us.

“It was unfortunate that Yuvraj was out that way (by stumping)…. It was one of those days.”

“We lost wickets at unfortunate times. If the opposition score 153 runs and you are not able to score them there is no excuse.

“If the run-rate was close to nine or 10 an over I thought we could achieve that but the timing of wickets was crucial and the run-rate really climbed on us.”

However, Dhoni promised India will bounce back at the next Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean.

“We lost in the 2007 World Cup and we lost in 50 overs, that was the worst part of my career. This loss is disappointing but still I don’t think it comes near to the loss we had in the 50-over World Cup.

“We were never really up to the mark but in nine months’ time there will be another World Cup and that is the only good thing we can say now.

“We’ll try to do well.”

“Cricket never tests your character when you are doing really well. It tests you when you are not doing well. I think this is a testing time for us but it’s not the end of the road.”

Asked if injured opener Virender Sehwag’s absence had an impact on India’s performance, Dhoni said: “He is the sort of player you can’t really replace – we missed him. When he starts off the bowler is under pressure. He’s a great player to have in your side.”

He said Sehwag’s replacement Rohit Sharma “did the job in percentage terms”.

Dhoni, who carried out a few different experiments in the last night’s match at the Lord’s, said he kept Ishant Sharma for middle overs, a move which paid dividends, but the idea of the pacer bowling a new length at death did not really click.

“Instead of yorkers, we wanted to bowl back of the length deliveries in the final three overs. Unfortunately it didn’t work,” Dhoni told reporters after losing the match by nine runs.

“We have seen other teams do it regularly so we wanted to use this opportunity of warm-up game to try it out. Unfortunately, it didn’t work today. If we have to go to the basics of bowling yorkers, we would do so,” he said.

India conceded nearly 40 runs in the final three overs and compounded the problem by scoring just 24 runs off the final four over of their chase.

“It’s just not about doing well in the first few overs or in the end. It’s critical that teams don’t lose too many wickets between 6 and 10 overs. That’s why somebody like Ishant Sharma can be critical in the middle overs. He could dry up the runs and batsmen could lose wickets in trying to go after him,” Dhoni said.

However, Dhoni’s idea of promoting Rohit Sharma as an opener in place of Virender Sehwag, who is carrying a shoulder injury, was very successful.

Indians suffered their fourth successive defeat at the hands of New Zealand and their skipper Daniel Vettori, with figures of 3 for 23, once again played a critical hand.

“Four defeats in four matches is a bit of concern,” conceded the Indian captain, adding that “however, in one of the overs he was also hit for 20 runs by Suresh Raina. So it’s not as if he can’t be attacked or 40-50 runs can’t be taken off his bowling.”

Dhoni pointed out that a side of the ground was shorter though he felt it’s going to be the trend in Twenty20 games.

“One side is always shorter and teams try to take advantage of it. If it’s managed well, even a score of 80 runs from the final eight overs is possible.

“However, once the asking rate goes beyond nine and half, it becomes difficult,” he said.

The 28-year-old captain felt spinners would call the shots in the World Twenty20 Championships.

“Most of the sides have quality spinners in their ranks as they understand slow bowlers have a huge role to play. Spinners, I am sure, will have a bigger impact in this tournament,” he said.

Chasing 171, Dhoni’s team seemed cruising to a victory before New Zealand’s discipline bowling at death put paid to defending champion India’s hopes.

Dhoni, however, preferred to look at the positives and said he was not unduly worried about the loss.

“Obviously we had some targets. A couple of batsmen got really good starts. Of course during the game we lost wickets at crucial times but we wanted to try a few things, specially in bowling and all of that worked for us,” Dhoni explained.

“Quite disappointed with the defeat but we have back-up plans and so I’m not really worried,” he said.

“Besides, we missed quite a few key players,” Dhoni added.

Dhoni was particularly happy about Ishant Sharma who returned to form with a four-wicket haul on Monday.

“I think it would give him great deal of confidence. He is a bowler who should be bowling at the start and also in the end. In between he came and got us those crucial wickets,” Dhoni said.

Laid low by food poisoning, Yuvraj Singh didn’t play today, while Virender Sehwag also skipped the match due to fitness reasons.

Dhoni assured they would all regain fitness before India’s next warm-up match against Pakistan on Wednesday.

“A couple of guys had food poisoning but I’m sure everyone will be fine before our next warm-up game,” he added.

Meanwhile, Kiwi captain Daniel Vettori was elated after the win which he attributed to team effort.

“It was a very good performance. Rohit (Sharma) and (Suresh) Raina were destructive and to come back from there, I must say I’m reasonably happy.

“I think we managed our innings well,” he added.

“It is very hard to predict who will win the trophy. But I think India is the strongest contender to retain the title. Pakistan is unpredictable and Australia too has improved a lot in this format. It will be quite open this time,” Chappell said from Brisbane.

“India has slight edge over other teams. It has trump cards like Dhoni and Yuvraj. Dhoni is among the best captains today. Yuvraj was out of colour in IPL but according to me he is one of the most dangerous batsmen in the shortest form of cricket. He will give headaches to rival captains,” opined the veteran.

Yuvraj smashed six sixes in an over of English pacer Stuart Broad in the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa two years ago.

Chappell said the Indian Premier League experience will be an added advantage for Indian players.

“Indian players are very well prepared after the IPL. But I don’t think that performance of players like Yuvraj and Dhoni, who have performed in patches during IPL, will get affected by this so called lean patch.”

Chappell was equally impressed with the performance of retired stars like Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Mathew Hayden, and Anil Kumble.

“A talented player can play any form of the game. Seniors have proved that they still have it in them. They had to move on in their careers and everyone has to call it a day. One can not play forever. But I think we will miss players like Gilchrist in T20 world cup,” said the former coach.

Chappell was appointed India’s coach of India in 2005 but after a series of controversies, personality clashes and India’s poor show in the 2007 ODI World Cup 2007 led to his resignation.

Senior players’ performance was appreciable, but Chappell maintained that T20 format is meant for youngsters only.

“I think this format is for young and energetic players who have hunger to prove themselves,” he said.

Asked about the leadership skills of Gilchrist, who led last year’s bottom-placed team Deccan Chargers to the IPL title this year, Chappell said he is not at all that surprised with the Aussie’s feat.

“I always knew that he is a very clever captain. He has the courage and conviction. It does not surprise me that his team won the title and he was adjudged the man of the series.”

Chappell also praised Rajasthan Royals captain and coach Shane Warne and admitted that Australia missed a clever captain. “It is hard luck for him that he could not be the national captain,” he said.

“Zaheer Khan is not one hundred per cent fit, but we hope he would be fit by the time of our first match (on June 6 at Trent Bridge),” Dhoni said in his pre-departure media conference.

“We are hoping he would get fit by the 2nd or 3rd (of June),” he added.

Doubts had cropped up about Zaheer’s availability for the World Championship when he stayed back in South Africa even after the conclusion of IPL for a treatment to his injury.

Zaheer, who played for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, suffered the injury on his bowling shoulder while diving to stop a drive off Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman Robin Uthappa in Johannesburg.

He underwent a scan that indicated some inflammation and the team management said the injury was not as serious as was thought before the scan. But he did not take part in the remaining matches of Mumbai Indians.

The June 5-21 tournament is the latest event for Team India in a non-stop roadshow that began with a full tour of New Zealand in February-April before a five-week sojourn in South Africa for the Indian Premier League.

Dhoni’s team returned home for just three days after the IPL before setting off again for England to defend the title they won in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007.

Coach Gary Kirsten admitted the heavy workload was a cause for worry, but the former South African opener was confident his wards will rise to the challenge in England.

“The Indian players have been on the road for a long time and the biggest challenge will be mental fatigue,” Kirsten said recently.

“But they have enormous pride when representing India and have become a tight unit over the past few months. I am sure they will look forward to reuniting and playing for their country.”

The gruelling schedule has already seen aggressive opener Virender Sehwag miss some IPL matches due to a finger injury, while pace spearhead Zaheer Khan is recovering from a sore shoulder.

Skipper Dhoni has been nursing a back strain as a result of being one of the world’s busiest cricketers, who keeps wicket, bats and leads his team in all forms of the game.

“I am not worried at all,” said Dhoni. “One gets used to the modern day schedule and I am sure we will all be raring to go once the tournament starts.”

The road to the semi-finals is no joy ride for the defending champions even though they are drawn with lowly Bangladesh and Ireland in the preliminary round.

Three of the toughest rivals in the 12-nation tournament — Australia, South Africa and hosts England — await them in the Super Eights round where the real battle for semi-final places begins.

India had beaten all three in the space of four magical nights in Durban in 2007 to advance to the final against Pakistan, but few are willing to take an encore for granted.

“You can’t afford to look too far ahead, there is the first round against Bangladesh and Ireland to get through,” said the Indian captain. “We all know what can happen.”

During the 50-overs-a-side World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007, India were sensationally knocked out by Bangladesh in the preliminary stage, while Ireland delivered Pakistan a killer blow at the same stage.

“When you are defending champions there will always be added pressure,” said Kirsten.

“That goes with the territory of high-performing teams. This team has played in many pressure situations and has shown what they are capable of.

“There is certainly no danger of complacency within the Indian team. We pride ourselves in taking each game as it comes and giving 100 percent on a daily basis.”

India have a good Twenty20 record, with eight wins in 13 matches so far.

But since beating Pakistan in the 2007 final in Johannesburg, the Indians have lost three of their five matches, including both games on the recent tour of New Zealand.