Dhoni Ka Dhamaka

As Cricket Australia rushed replacement

wicketkeeper Graham Manou to India, paceman

Mitchell Johnson conceded the overcrowded

schedule and heavy injury toll were affecting the

Australian team's focus.

A relentless merry-go-round of cricket that began

last September with a Test tour of India and will

continue after this trip with a full home summer and

tours to New Zealand, West Indies and England

has left the team dangerously over-stretched.

The latest injury, a broken finger to wicketkeeper

Tim Paine, forced a scramble to get Manou to

Delhi in time to prepare for Saturday's third limited

overs contest against India, even as the team

tries to make sense of Wednesday's horrid 99-run

defeat at Nagpur which levelled the series.

Manou follows allrounder Moises Henriques as a

mid-tour call-up to reinforce the battered squad.

Paine's loss followed ailments picked up by Brett

Lee (elbow), James Hopes (hamstring) and

Johnson (ankle), who battled manfully to get

himself fit in time to play game two.

Vice captain Michael Clarke (back), Nathan

Bracken (knee), Callum Ferguson (knee) and Brad

Haddin (finger) were all unable to make the tour

due to injury, and Johnson acknowledged the

string of injuries were a distraction.

"With a few little niggles around, the focuses do

tend to go towards that, but we've got to regroup,

sit in our team meetings and talk about what went

wrong and what we thought we did right out there

as well," Johnson said.

"We've got a few (two) days until the next game (in

Delhi), so the games are pretty tight and you've

just got to move on to the next one."

Asked about the amount of time off he and other

members of the side had received over the past

year, Johnson did not want to whinge, but still

acknowledged there was a serious imbalance.

"I'd like a bit more (downtime). Obviously the

international schedule is pretty intense at the

moment and any chance we get to have a little bit

of downtime or be home is great," Johnson said.

"It is a heavy schedule and look, playing for our

country I can't complain, we only play cricket for a

short time in our careers, so we've got to make the

most of the opportunities while we can.

"But I think you've also got to balance it out with

your life at home as well."

Johnson's figures of 3-75 from 10 overs were

hardly the return he would have been seeking in

Nagpur but he fared better than Ben Hilfenhaus

(1-83 from 10) and the strangely out of sorts

Shane Watson (0-47 from five), who again lacked

the control he had shown in earlier tournaments.

Indian captain MS Dhoni (124, 107 balls) played

one of his finest innings to batter the tourists and

help run up 7-354, his side's highest-ever score

against Australia, after first building a platform with

the pesky Gautam Gambhir (76).

The Australians were never in the chase, leaving

Johnson to hope for the return of Lee in Delhi to

add much-needed seasoning to the attack.

"Brett was disappointed to miss a game for

Australia but I'm sure he'll be trying to get back as

quickly as he can and get out there," Johnson

said.

"He's played a lot of one day cricket and that

experience definitely helps. We had a fairly young

bowling attack out there, so it's always good to

have someone like that in the side.