India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni [Images] came to the defence of out-of-form predecessor Rahul Dravid [Images], saying every player goes through bad patches in his career.

Dravid was sent in to bat at number four, ahead of Yuvraj Singh [Images], Dhoni and Robin Uthappa, but scored only seven runs off 13 balls when the situation demanded quick scoring.

But the skipper defended his decision, saying the former captain was originally slated to come in at number three.

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"Rahul was padded up for long to bat at no three. Then I promoted Irfan [Pathan] to number three and, when he was out, sent Rahul. It's true he's been struggling a bit of late, but that has happened to all of us, including Sachin [Tendulkar]. He also did not get the strike in the beginning," Dhoni said after the 18-run loss to Australia in the sixth One-Day International, which handed Australia the series.

"By the time he went out to bat, the asking rate had already climbed to 7.5 and it's not easy for a new batsman to cope up with it," said Dhoni.

Dravid, with a tally of just 44 in the series before today's match, came in at 189 for 2 after the 33rd over and was fifth out at 218 in the 41st.

Dhoni blamed the missed catches off man of the match Andrew Symonds [Images], who smashed an unbeaten 107 off 88 balls, as one of the main reasons for the defeat.

"We let off a couple of catches of Symonds and we never got the wickets when we needed them. When we batted we had a good opening stand (of 140 between Sachin Tendulkar [Images] and Sourav

Ganguly) but then kept losing wickets when partnerships were needed later," he said.

"By the time I and Robin (Uthappa who made 44 off 28 balls) came together the asking rate had climbed to over 10 and it's never easy," the wicketkeeper-batsman said.

He admitted that the home team did not perform well, barring the one match at Chandigarh.

"We have not performed well in all the departments of the game at the same time except at Chandigarh, where we did so and won," he said.

The Ranchi-based player also said the Indian bowling at the death and batting between the 20th and 40th overs needs improvement.

"We bowled well at the death in South Africa (in the Twenty20 World Cup) but did not do well in England [Images]. Here too we have not bowled well at that stage.

"We need to improve on this aspect. We also need to keep wickets to enable us to score in the region of five to 5.5 between the 20th and 40th overs to have the chance for a charge at the end," he explained.

Asked why he did not bat at number three himself, he replied that he was not confident of doing so against the new ball due to lack of practice.

"But you may see me coming in at No 3 in the next series. I am going to practice for that," he added.

Dhoni singled out left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg [Images] as the key bowler in the Aussie line-up.

"Today, the other four bowlers gave him the platform to bowl," said Dhoni, about Hogg's four-wicket haul for 49 runs.