ICC CWC 2019: Dhoni prefers to stay away from optional practice session at Manchester

Debasis Sen, Manchester: It was a wet Tuesday here in Manchester as it had been raining since morning. A whatsapp message from the Indian media manager around 9:25am read that the team management has decided to train indoors since the outfield is wet at Old Trafford. The message also said that the practice session will be an optional one. Around 9:45am only four cricketers including the Indian captain Virat Kohli, Vijay Shankar, Rabindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar arrived at the indoor nets of Old Trafford. But where is Dhoni? Surprisingly the man who has been discussed the most in last 48 hours due to his slow batting against Afghanistan in Southampton is not at the indoor nets. The former captain has been having a dismal World Cup so far, scoring just 90 runs from 4 outings. He has taken 2 catches and was involved in one stumping.


Kohli, as always looked a lot focused at the nets. And he has more reasons to be so as his contemporaries Root, Williamson, Smith have all got hundreds under their belt in the tournament so far. Kohli has so far scored 244 runs in 4 matches which isn’t bad but as he always sets high standards, he would have been a lot happier to score more runs.


Before entering into the nets the Indian captain had a long discussion with Head Coach Ravi Shastri over a particular shot. He took a few throw downs from batting coach Sanjay Bangar and then headed straight to bat at one of the nets which had an automated bowling machine. Somewhat unhappy he decides to move to another net which had another bowling machine (manual one) where Raghavendra was feeding the ball. After spending at least half an hour Kohli had a brief break before re-entering the nets again to take throw downs from Raghu, Nuwan and Sanjay Bangar.


Meanwhile Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who pulled his hamstring, has started to bowl again. The medium pacer was seen rolling his arms at the indoor nets. Physio Patrick Farhat was constantly monitoring his movement and was seen discussing with him (Bhuvi) after each delivery he bowled. Later selection committee chairman MSK Prasad was seen having a chat with the physio to get an update about Bhuvi.


Bowling coach Bharat Arun was also around as Bhuvneshwar rolled his arms. If the practice session are any indication, it looks the team management will not rush with the medium pacer for Thursday’s match against the West Indies.