Mahendra Singh Dhoni

New Delhi: Dashing wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Wednesday said the Indian team has not been receiving the kind of support sportspersons need when they go through a bad phase.

Dhoni refused to elaborate, but hinted at the boorish crowd behaviour in the Test match against England in Mumbai last week.

“We are not getting the kind of support we want from fans, particularly when things are not going well for us,” the Ranchi swashbuckler said.

“I can understand if we are playing abroad, the support is going to be less for us there.

“When we are playing in India, we expect good support. It helps if you back us strongly,” the 24-year old said at a felicitation here.

“I don’t want to be specific but you know what happened in Mumbai and here (in the first one-dayer in New Delhi),” he added.

Dhoni got out to a rash shot in India’s second innings in Mumbai as the hosts capitulated to a 212-run defeat, while the Delhi crowd jeered the batsmen on their dismissals in the first one-dayer on Tuesday.

The Jharkhand player said he would not change his style of batting, though.

Asked whether he was curbing his strokeplay in the Kotla one-dayer, Dhoni said, “It was just that Harbhajan was playing well and I had played only 20-30 balls,” he said.

“There should not be an impression that as I am a strokemaker I should always be hitting the ball. If somebody is playing shots, I can go slow”, he said.