Dhoni not sure if IPL fatigue affected players' performance during England tour

London, August 23 (ANI): Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Monday said that it is yet to be ascertained if participation of players in the cash rich Indian Premiere League (IPL) tournament affected their performance during the England tour.

While addressing a news conference in London, Dhoni made it clear that it is too early to blame the players' involvement in the IPL for their poor show in the recent test series against England.

England completed a series whitewash over India when they won the fourth test by an innings and eight runs on the last day of the four test match series between the two teams at the Oval cricket ground in London.

India, following on in their second innings, collapsed to 283 all out in the second session after Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed on 91 by Tim Bresnan with just nine runs short of his much anticipated 100th international century.

Tendulkar added 144 for the fourth wicket with Amit Mishra, who added 84 runs to the Indian score board before being bowled by Graeme Swann. Quick seven wickets fell for 21 runs, crippling India.

There has been a call to empower players to make their own choices for the tournaments they would like to play in.

"Well let's see and hope for the best over who gets empowered and who gets the power. So hopefully we won't miss players if you all feel it's all because of the IPL. Let's see and hope for the best," said Dhoni.

Commenting on the issue of IPL, England cricket team captain Andrew Strauss stated that the non-involvement of England players in IPL may have helped them performing well.

"You can never hold anything against a player for what he is playing in the IPL, for financial reasons or for improving their game or whatever. But in some ways we have been less affected by the other side. And this is purely looking from the England team's perspective. There have been some benefits for us being less involved. But as I said, you can understand individual players who wanted to be involved in that tournament," he said.

England took over from India as the world's top-ranked nation when they won the third test at Edgbaston. India now ranks third in international test cricket. Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)