Former Indian skipper, MS Dhoni is on the verge of regaining his lost touch as he sweated it out in the nets ahead of the second ODI between India and Australia in Adelaide on Tuesday. He was also seen giving tips to Dinesh Karthik on how to tackle spin bowlers in the nets. Interestingly, Dhoni, who was once a prolific player of spin bowling, has struggled against the spinners in the past couple of years.
Dhoni was far from his best as he struggled against the Australian bowlers in the first ODI at Sydney scoring a sluggish 96-ball 51 in a losing cause as India lost the game by 34 runs. He particularly found it hard to middle the ball against spinner Nathan Lyon and had a hard time out in the middle. While his slow knock arrested India’s collapse and helped the Indian team stabilize the chase from 4-3 to 141-4, but the Men in Blue eventually fell short of the target.
Dhoni has scored less than 4.2 runs per over against spinners for the last four years in ODIs and his declining prowess as a batsman has regularly put him under the scanner. However, integral to India’s chances at the biggest of stages, Dhoni ensures he puts the extra yards in the nets to tackle his weaknesses and improve his batting.
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As he took to the nets ahead of the third ODI in Adelaide, Dhoni was seen tackling spinners as he showed Karthik a thing or two about dealing with the variations. Here is the post:
Dinesh Kartik getting some up-close tuition on how MS Dhoni plays spin, in Adelaide Oval nets #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/CbzDL0Ydwm
— Andrew Ramsey (@ARamseyCricket) January 14, 2019
Karthik also failed to deliver with the bat in the first ODI as he could only muster 12 runs off 21 deliveries failing to bail India out of trouble in a pressure chase. The lower-middle order surrendered and India suffered their first defeat in the three-match series with Australia taking a 1-0 lead.
The second ODI will be a do-or-die encounter for India as a loss would see the hosts take an unassailable 2-0 lead and thus clinch the series. Indian batsmen will have to come out on top of their game and complement the bowlers to help the visitors equalize.
