MS Dhoni Trains Alone at the NCA, Gives a Word of Advice to Shardul Thakur

When you become a veteran cricketer and spend a considerable amount of time in the international circuit you sometimes prefer to prepare pretty quickly for tough battles. Former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni also falls in that category. He went through a rigorous net session at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru as a part of preparations plans ahead of the limited overs tour of England slated to start from early next month.

Even Sachin Tendulkar used to follow this trend during the twilight of his career. He would train all by himself at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai ahead of any tough battles. The training session of Dhoni at the NCA was very similar to that of Tendulkar. Dhoni was seen facing several deliveries. Among them 70% were throwdowns.

Dhoni passed the yo-yo test on 15^th June along with other limited overs specialists. He had stayed back to make full use of the conditions. Dhoni was seen receiving throw downs from expert Raghu and fast bowler Shardul Thakur. What followed for the next two hours was an intense net session. He faced the customary throw downs from Raghu while facing Shardul at full pace in between.

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It was a two hour at a stretch. After taking a short break he again began batting. This time the bowler at the opposite end was Siddharth Kaul. Raghu started off the session with throw-downs which was pretty customary. The pace slowly increased and the wicket-keeper batsman was peppered with short deliveries which reared from the length.

He defended a few and smashed a couple and swayed out of the line on a number of times. When there was some width, Dhoni tried slashing it over the point region. He called up Shardul and asked him his imaginary field placements. The fast bowler was seen pointing towards mid wicket, extra cover and deep fine leg. The former skipper executed his shots accordingly. He also had a word of advice for Shardul after facing a few deliveries.

Reflexes of Dhoni has gone down considerably

There is no doubt about the fact that the reflexes of Dhoni aren’t the same which used to be 7 8 years ago. However, he is still a force to reckon with and can play the big shots quite consistently if the ball is in his arc. There was quite a few plays and misses during the session. However, when he middled, it stayed hit.

After the end of the practice session, he found out some people were watching him practice. “Bank lag Gaya (So you got the whiff that I am here),” Dhoni smiled as he headed back to the pavilion.

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