Nagpur: India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is on a mission to instil confidence in young leg spinner Piyush Chawla to make him ready for the business end of the World Cup.
The Indian captain has kept faith with the baby-faced Chawla as the second specialist spinner behind Harbhajan Singh despite the leg spinner failing to do anything much to justify such a preference.
The 22-year-old, who returned to the Indian ODI squad after a gap of 30 months against South Africa in January, has managed just four wickets while leaking runs in the World Cup.
Dhoni's dilemma now is whether to cut his losses with Chawla before India's next Group B match with South Africa on Saturday or stick with him to build his confidence and his mental toughness for the expected knockout stages ahead.
Critics have, in particular, been calling for lanky off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to replace him against Graeme Smith's men but he has yet to appear in any World Cup match.
But Dhoni, who clearly sees him as a trump card, indicated Chawla might get the vote.
"What you need to assess is who needs the games more. Piyush Chawla ... needs to get his confidence back," Dhoni said.
"He is 22-23 years of age. He will be feeling the pressure ... and he has only just returned to the side."
Chawla proved in warm-up matches how dangerous he can be but his figures in the competition proper do not inspire. He went for 71 in 10 overs against England and 56 in eight overs against Ireland before doing better with 2-47 against Netherlands.
Dhoni is impressed with Ashwin's attitude at least.
"From what I have seen of Ashwin, I have played with him ... he is a mentally tough character, works a lot on his bowling and variations," Dhoni said.
"People are very different when it comes to a mental toughness level. He looks quite mature."
Dhoni also said that India needed better fielders rather than a fielding coach to improve their performance on the field.
"There is a need of good fielders (rather than a coach). Again I have to repeat my car theory. You may put hybrid oil in a car but unless the cylinders are strong, it will not matter," Dhoni said.
"As long as we don't drop catches, I will be happy. I don't see vast improvement, seeing the kind of side we are. But we are definitely putting a lot of effort in the fielding department."