MS Dhoni gears up for the T20I series with Jasprit Bumrah’s help

Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni might have put off a lot from his back after stepping down as the captain of the limited-overs team but he certainly is expected to go out there and bang the bowlers from the onset. The bowlers have also devised to various strategies to keep him silent and more so have developed a weapon against attacking batsmen for the death overs.

Against someone like Dhoni, the most potent Yorker is of little use since he has this ability to hit out the ball bowled into the block hole for a six courtesy the ‘helicopter shot’. The wide Yorker is a more reliable option since it doesn’t give the batsmen any scope to get under the ball and all they can do is try and slice it opening the face of the bat which is also difficult since there is a lot of pace behind the ball and more often than not a perfectly bowled wide Yorker beats the batsmen.

Chris Woakes opted for the same strategy in the 3rd ODI against India and after conceding a boundary and a six in the first two balls, bowled two dot balls and got rid of Kedar Jadhav on the 5th and the defended 6 on the last ball beating Bhuvneshwar Kumar with a wider delivery as well. Now that it is clear what the opponent is planning it is up to the batsmen to devise their response.

Dhoni acknowledging it was seen practising against the wider balls. He chose Jasprit Bumrah as his partner. He is without a doubt the most accurate bowler in the Indian unit and can exactly deliver the wide Yorker Dhoni is likely to face in the game. He placed a ball as an indication of where he wants it to be bowled. Bumrah bowled a few deliveries in the zone and he sliced them on the off side.

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But MS Dhoni is incomplete without the down the ground big shots he hits stepping down the wicket. He charged down to Bumrah for the last couple of deliveries and hit them mighty and big.

Watch the video, a glimpse of their practice session here:

The @msdhoni challenge for Jasprit Bumrah – #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/zgm5lbwfqx

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 25, 2017