Last Update on: January 28th, 2019 at 09:55 am
Former Indian National Cricket team skipper MS Dhoni has given the 3rd ODI against New Zealand at the Bay Oval a miss due to a sore hamstring. Meanwhile, India lead the five-match series 2-0 and a win on Monday’s clash will seal the series for them.
Virat Kohli while speaking at the toss confirmed the news about MS Dhoni’s injury. Although it is not something to worry about but the management has decided not to risk with the ICC World Cup in sight. Dinesh Karthik, who was sitting at the sidelines so far, will replace Dhoni. India also bought in Hardik Pandya in place of Vijay Shankar, who joined the squad after CoA provisionally lifted his ban.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) suspended Pandya along with KL Rahul for their controversial statements on a talk show. They asked both the cricketers to return to the country prior to the ODI series against Australia.
“The same thing, we would’ve wanted to bat first. Under the lights, we felt the ball came on better. We were quite satisfied, I personally would like to get the scoring rate up. In the last game, we could’ve got to 340. A couple of changes. MS has got a sore hamstring, Karthik comes back. Hardik comes in place of Vijay Shankar. It’s brilliant, especially if you look at our away performances. It’s great to have two guys who can pick wickets in the middle overs,” Kohli said at the toss.
Dhoni is in good touch
Meanwhile, MS Dhoni who had the worst year of his career in 2018, stormed back to form right from the start of 2019. He scored three consecutive fifties against Australia guiding his side to their first-ever bilateral series win Down Under. Moreover, he also won the man of the series award much to the relief of the Indian team management ahead of the showpiece event.
He also played an unbeaten knock of 48 runs in the second game against New Zealand as India posted 324 runs on the board batting first. Eventually, the men in blues won the match by 90 runs to go 2-0 up in the series.
