Indian wicketkeeper and World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni was part of a training camp organized by the Chennai Super Kings before the nationwide lockdown. Dhoni was joined by veterans Indian players like Ambati Raydu, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla amongst others. Piyush Chawla who joined the Chennai Based IPL Franchise last year spoke about the pre-IPL training camp and how the camp was curtailed due to the increasing cases of Coronavirus in India.
MS Dhoni joined the camp on March 2 which was the first day and trained hard with all others who were set to return and play together in the IPL. Speaking about it, Piyush Chawla commented on Dhoni’s fitness and enthusiasm to return back in competitive cricket. He also mentioned how MSD was extremely focused and showed match-like intensity in the way he was batting and keeping in the pre-IPL camp.
“Mahi bhai was absolutely focused, training purposefully and was looking really good. He was showing match-like intensity in the way he was batting and keeping and that was rubbing off on others,” Chawla said.
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Former India international cricketer and CSK’s bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji also spoke on MS Dhoni and his training during the camp.
“MS is a natural athlete and supremely fit. He didn’t look rusty, didn’t look one bit like he was away from the game. He was clearly looking forward to the season, the way he was training, batting, keeping and being involved with the team,” Balaji said.
CSK physiotherapist Tommy Simsek also comments on the changes he observed in MS Dhoni’s training.He recalled it might be the first time in about 10 years he has watched MS Dhoni doing wicketkeeping drills.
“For the first time in about 10 years I saw MS do some wicketkeeping training and that goes to show that he was definitely keen, definitely focused to do well this year. I was worried that he hadn’t done much for a long time and then that he would try and do too much, too soon and he may get injured. It turned that I need not have worried – MS being the professional, he looked in really good shape. He said he’d started (training) a month or so before our fitness camp,” Simsek said.
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Dhoni had taken a long break from international cricket. He last played white-ball cricket in the semi-final against New Zealand of the World Cup back in 2019. People were excited to see the veteran Indian World-Cup winning captain back in action. He was expected to be back for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League. However, the fans will have to wait longer as the IPL has also been affected due to the pandemic spread of the Corona Virus.
