Indian skipper MS Dhoni on Sunday backed the team’s rotation policy in the top order, saying the top three batsmen were not playing each game because they are slow on the field.

Dhoni explained the reasons why Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir are not playing all the games together.

“It might happen (they playing together, but) it would affect our fielding in a big way, it’s not only these three, there are quite a few other players who are also slow on the field. If you really add it up, you would have only two or three good fielders,” Dhoni said.

“These fielders are not bad but on these big fields, they are slightly on the slower side. They would be exploited once the ball goes to them, the Australians and Sri Lankans would look for those two or three runs to put pressure on their body. Their throwing and diving needs to be good.”

“They are safe fielders on the slower side. The pressure would be on them. They would have to throw from positions where there would be pressure on them. There would be breakdowns. It’s not like India where the ball goes to a boundary and you just throw it back. Here, you can pull muscle or a hamstring.”

Blames heat for defeat

Dhoni said losing early wickets while chasing and leaking too many runs in the last 10 overs due to searing heat, were the main reasons for their defeat against Australia on Sunday.

“With that kind of score you needed a brisk start. They got early breakthroughs and that put pressure on us. Our bowlers were affected by the heat, they were cramping so it affected their execution,” Dhoni said after the match.