MS Dhoni may play Warm-up games against England before ODI series

Indian limited overs skipper MS Dhoni will in all likelihood get a chance to play at least a couple of warm-up matches prior to the ODI series against England. The ODI series will commence in June on January 15.

Before the start of the limited-overs series, the touring English side will play two warm-up games against India A on January 10 and 12 at the CCI ground in Mumbai. Dhoni was last seen in action for the national team during the home ODI series against the Black Caps which India won by a 3-2 margin and since then he would have gone into the ODI series without proper match practice in 77 days.

Dhoni has been training regularly with the Jharkhand Ranji team who has qualified for the knock-out stages of the Ranji Trophy. However, JSCA secretary Rajesh Verma made it pretty clear that Dhoni won’t be taking part in the Ranji Trophy as the champion wicketkeeper-batsman had already retired from test cricket.

It will be pretty interesting to see if the selectors also opt to pick Rishab Pant as the 2nd wicket-keeper for his extraordinary hitting abilities at such a young age. Pant has been in a prolific run-scoring form in the domestic circuit and recently became the youngest in Indian cricket history to hit a triple century in first class cricket.

It won’t be a bad idea if we see both Dhoni and Pant in action together, who is cited as Dhoni’s apparent heir, especially in the limited overs format.

The flamboyant Jharkhand lad retired from Test cricket in the year 2014 in between the Test series in Australia to shock the whole cricketing fraternity. Virat Kohli took over the reigns from Dhoni and has handled his troops pretty well in the limited matches he has captained so far. In the 20 matches Kohli has captained, India has a very impressive record with 12 wins, 2 losses and 6 draws.