Australian quick Mitchell Johnson said they would target Indian opener Virender Sehwag with plenty of short balls as part of an overall plan to bring down the hosts in the quarter-final on Thursday.
Sehwag has so far had a good tournament with the bat scoring 327 runs at an average of 63.40 in the group stage. And Dhoni feels the short ball won't affect Sehwag's ability to score runs.
Talking to reporters in the pre-match press conference in Ahmedabad, Dhoni said: "It (bowling short deliveries) is not something that's new to us."
"Wherever we are, the shadow of short-pitched deliveries can be seen, so I don' think it's a new strategy. It's very good to have Virender Sehwag opening the innings for you."
"The deliveries will be short and targeted on the body. But Sehwag is the kind of batsman if you are slightly wrong, he can make the most of that kind of bowling."
"It's really good to have him. In the first five overs he can give your team the kind of momentum that is required."
The skipper also ruled out the option of playing three specialist spinners — Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla and R Ashwin — at the Motera stadium in Ahmedabad.
Dhoni said: "Keeping the current team composition in mind, it will be very difficult to include all the three specialist spinners for tomorrow’s (Thursday) game."
Indian bowlers, except Zaheer Khan, are yet to make an impression in the tournament and according to Dhoni it's high time for them to deliver.
Talking about the bowling attack, Dhoni said: "We have relied a lot on Zak in this tournament. He has responded in a fantastic manner whenever we needed a breakthrough."
"However, other bowlers also need to take responsibility and come up with a good showing."
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