Uncertain for Wednesday's Asia Cup opener against Bangladesh, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Tuesday skipped the entire training session of the Indian cricket team here even though he accompanied the side to the ground.
Nursing back spasms, Dhoni's availability for the match at Mirpur on Wednesday is not clear with his vice-captain Virat Kohli also refraining from giving a clear response. While a lot of players don't train on pre-match days, Dhoni normally plays football and does batting practice in the nets. Although, he never does any keeping drills during training sessions, he does gather a few before taking the field on match days.
In a nutshell, Dhoni can't be ruled out till the playing XI is announced before toss on Wednesday.
Dhoni has been suffering from back spasms which resulted in Parthiv Patel being flown in on SOS basis as cover for the Indian captain.
While he did not take part in the training session, Dhoni keenly watched his teammates go through the paces at the Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium, on Tuesday.
A keen footballer, who would never miss a game, Dhoni stood behind the goalpost at the pavilion end, watching his teammates warm-up. Later, when the nets started, he watched Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma bat. In between, he did give some catching practice to Ajinkya Rahane, who is unlikely to feature in the XI now that Virat Kohli has made a comeback. Dhoni's replacement Parthiv Patel did arrive by afternoon but was given rest as he has flown in from Mumbai this afternoon. If the pint-sized wicket-keeper batsman from Gujarat gets to play, it will be without a proper net session with the team.
The bigger reason that Dhoni will be keen to get fit is because Parthiv can't bat in all key positions in the shortest format. The other problem with Parthiv is his inability to hit big sixes during death overs. His best has come against the new ball. He takes advantage of the field restrictions in the first six overs at least sporadically in the IPL.
But given the settled top-order, Parthiv is unlikely to be included in the upper half of the line-up. In fact, he may be sent after the big-hitting Hardik Pandya. Among other players, Ashish Nehra did his own routine before bowling a few deliveries at the nets. One such sharp bouncer surprised Pandya, who seemed rattled by the steep bounce generated by the 36-year-old Delhiite. The other notable aspect during the training session was Ravindra Jadeja's big-hitting. Whether it was Harbhajan Singh or the net bowlers, Jadeja was regularly sending the deliveries soaring into the stands.
Parthiv Patel recalled as standby
The Indian selectors have this time tilted towards experience rather than youth. They have packed the T20 squad with players who spent youth long time back. Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Parthiv Patel as a standby for Dhoni who has been a doubtful case. Consider this: There was one other player, Sanjay Bangar, apart from these in the 2003 World Cup squad who is also currently associated with the Indian team but as India’s batting coach now. The selectors have gone analog in this digital age.
There is wisdom to most of the selections. For a while now, Nehra has been one of the best Indian bowlers in the T20 format in pressure situations, whom most of his captains turn to. Yuvraj Singh too keeps raking in the cash in IPLs and his all-round value in Indian conditions isn’t unknown commodity. Harbhajan Singh has been probably bowling somewhere near his best in the recent times.
However, Patel seems to be a bit of a stretch. He has been in good form, having scored 333 runs in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare trophy, and been doing well for various IPL teams over the years, but most of his good times with the bat have come top of the order. If Dhoni’s injury forces him to sit out a match, are we going to give that rare break to Patel at top of the order? There doesn’t seem any sense in breaking rhythm of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan by separating them few weeks before the big event.
It’s difficult to see Patel coming out to bat in the middle order in a crunch situation. The committed cricketer that he is, he will definitely have a go at it, give his best. On that there is no doubt. It’s just that Patel the batsman is better off in the batting Powerplay in this format where he can use the fielding restrictions and score a breezy 30-odd runs. That is now going to be slightly more difficult in the lower middle order.
