Mumbai: Having manfully shouldered the responsibility of captaining India for close to a decade, it will be one last time that a team list will find the word ‘skipper’ alongside Mahendra Singh Dhoni when he leads India A in the first warm-up game against England beginning here Monday.
The other person who will be followed with a lot of intent is comeback man Yuvraj Singh, who is expected to figure crucially in Virat Kohli’s scheme of things for the Champions Trophy. Among others opener Shikhar Dhawan and pacer Ashish Nehra will also be closely watched. Both are returning from injuries.
But the cynosure of all eyes will certainly be the Jharkhand dasher. Not always does a warm-up game become an emotional affair and Dhoni is the last person to show any but it does become special when Virat Kohli says that the first thing that comes to mind when one mentions Dhoni is ‘Captain’.
For Dhoni, the match will give a chance for some real time simulations as he has not played any competitive cricket for more than 70 days since the New Zealand series which ended in October.
While he has trained regularly, done his nets and travelled at some places with the Jharkhand Ranji team, nothing can replace serious match time, which will help him get some important time in the middle before the first ODI in Pune, January 15.
For England, hammered 0-4 in the Test series, a welcome Christmas break would have certainly helped as nine of the Test team members are set to comeback for the six-match limited overs series. The entire team, barring key batsman Joe Root, had a three-hour training session this morning in the cooler confines of the Brabourne Stadium.
PTI
