MUMBAI: Both Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians received a boost ahead of their IPL clash on Thursday with MS Dhoni showing signs of returning to full fitness during a high intensity training session and England’s T20 World Cup star, Will Jacks, joining the hosts for his first training session.
Dhoni has missed all six CSK games due to a calf strain.
Ayush Mhatre’s hamstring injury has been a body blow for CSK. Dhoni’s return will be well-timed, lifting their morale after a frustrating 10-run defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The 44-year-old trained hard, keeping wicket and batting for a long time. Coming off a dominating win over Gujarat Titans, MI will be further bolstered by Jack’s availability. The spin-allrounder had a superb World Cup, exceeding expectations with four player of the match awards for his match-turning performances during England’s run to the semi-finals.
If Dhoni plays he is expected to keep wicket and Sanju Samson will move to the outfield. The former India and CSK captain rarely keeps wicket in the nets before a game but since he is coming after a long lay-off, he started Tuesday’s training session with a half-hour keeping stint against the spinners.
CSK have the option of using Dhoni as an Impact Player also.
Holding the bat with a slightly open face, he looked in decent touch, middling the shots during a 45-minute batting session against pacers Matt Henry, Jamie Overton, Gurjapneet Singh and Anshul Kamboj, where he and Prashant Veer took turns to bat.
The five-time IPL winner’s experience will be invaluable. At the net session, he was seen sharing his inputs with the pace bowlers, showing them the lines that could be effective.
However, the final call will depend on how his body feels after the training. “He’s just progressing with his running because he’s going to bat towards the back-end of the innings. He’s going to scurry for those twos and things like that. So, he just needs to get confidence in his running and build that speed up,” CSK batting coach Mike Hussey had said about Dhoni after Saturday’s SRH game.
Dhoni still remains one of the biggest crowd pullers in IPL and his presence can garner massive support for CSK on Thursday.