London, July 25: Having sunk to defeat on Day 5 at Lord’s against England, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni nonetheless looked forward to an exciting series ahead in the post-match presentation. Speaking to the media about the match and India’s injury woes, the captain lauded his team’s effort.

Excerpts from the presentation:

On the Indian team’s performance

Considering the situation and what really happened to our side, [losing] Zaheer Khan early [to injury] was a big blow which meant we had to go on with three bowlers. And it wasn’t really spinning much which meant it would be tough for Harbhajan [Singh] to contain the opposition. The fast bowlers stepped up [to the challenge]. You don’t usually see fast bowlers bowling close to 60 overs in a game. As a bowling department, we did whatever we could. Unfortunately, after that we lost Sachin [Tendulkar] in the sense he was unfit for the game, he got a viral infection. In the second innings Gautam Gambhir got injured. Overall in the second innings most of the batsmen batted at different places, that was more forced than anything else. Overall five days of good cricket. Kevin Pietersen batted really well for them [England] in the first innings, [Matt] Prior in the second innings and we had a couple of good innings from our side also. Overall [I am] quite happy with the kind of cricket that was played for the last five days.

On the general opinion that India often have a sluggish start to series

I don’t really know. If we knew the exact reason, we would have made sure that it didn’t really happen in a series like this. But it’s a long series, four Test matches, three more to go; there is more exciting cricket left.

On whether he thought the team’s preparation was sufficient going into the series

A few more days would have been really effective. In the first few days it rained [and] we didn’t get much of a chance but it’s not about making excuses. Whatever opportunities we had, we tried to make the most of. Unfortunately or fortunately, we didn’t have too many days, so whatever we have in hand, we will [try to] maximise.

On Zaheer Khan

He might bowl in Trent Bridge but [we’re] not really sure, we will assess what kind of improvement he has [made]. We can’t say anything right now but will keep our fingers crossed.

On hoping he won’t have to bowl at Trent Bridge himself

It’s a very tough job. The whole body pains right from the toe nail to the hair and the fast bowlers are doing it quite well. I hope they will be doing their job.

On whether there was any complacency in the team and whether they underestimated England

We take each and every series as an important series. We don’t take any side lightly so it is out of the question that we will take [the] English side lightly. The coming games will be interesting. We will get two or three days to prepare for the next game so it should be exciting.