Jharkhand cricketers Shahbaz Nadeem and Ishan Kishan laud the helping hand of MS Dhoni

Shahbaz Nadeem and Ishan Kishan have been extremely impressive when it comes to reaching the semifinal of the Ranji Trophy. However, while these two have been impressive with both bat and ball respectively, they always remember the man who gave them and the team a helping hand during the rough times.

Incumbent Indian skipper MS Dhoni has reportedly been someone who has been lending his tactical acumen to both Kishan and Nadeem in recent times, something that has worked wonders for both of them. Nadeem also went on to illustrate how Dhoni helped them.

“It always helps when you have someone like Dhoni bhai to help you. There is no questioning his tactical acumen and I still remember that going into the game against Maharashtra, the wicket wore a slightly greener look. So Dhoni bhai came up to me and said that I should initially look to restrict the batsmen and use variations only after I have tied them down. The move worked wonders and here I am leading the wicket-takers’ tally,” Nadeem revealed.

Ishan Kishan also went on to state that Dhoni walked up to him and told him to change his batting stance. “Dhoni bhai saw me at the nets and walked up to me and said that I needed to curtail my attacking instincts, to begin with. He believed that to play a long innings I needed to be a little more compact and I did just that. He asked me to change my stance as well and when it comes from someone like Dhoni bhai, you know you can trust his observation.

“I got time to rework my stance and train with my new stance during the camp ahead of the season and I realized that I was feeling a lot better at the crease. I have maintained that stance since and I have seen that it has enhanced my batting,” he revealed.

He also added Dhoni’s emphasis on fitness. “Dhoni bhai puts a lot of emphasis on fitness. As we all know, he loves to stay at the top of his fitness level. And this time, he ensured that we also worked on our fitness at the start of the season. It was obviously something that wasn’t too common with the domestic teams, but the experience was out of the world.

“To be honest, we have played nine games so far, but we still feel like the season has just started. To be mentally fresh going into the business end of the tournament is very important and we have managed to do that thanks to Dhoni bhai’s efforts,” he concluded.