International Cricket is a different cup of tea and even the best in the business require to be match fit in order to compete in the jungle. Indian ODI captain MS Dhoni who has retired from Test cricket finds himself in a real corner as he has no game time before the ODI series against England commences.
The iceman is likely to feature in his first International match after a considerable gap of two and a half months.
The new management under Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli have made it mandatory for International players to go back and play Ranji Trophy matches to prove their fitness before they are considered for National duty. This criterion does not apply for Dhoni, who has bid adieu to five-day cricket.
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The limited overs skipper who looked in decent touch during the ODI series against New Zealand will not have any competitive cricket to prepare for the England challenge. Earlier he played for Jharkhand in previous year's Vijay Hazare to prepare for the ODIs against Australia. However, this year's Vijay Hazare begins almost a month after the England series is over.
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It would be interesting to see if Dhoni opts to play for Jharkhand in the ongoing Ranji Trophy, as many of the ODI specialists are honing their skills against the red ball.
Jharkhand has been a team in form this season and have already qualified for the knockouts. Young Ishan Kishan has been one of the finds of the season, and he has been brilliant with both bat and with the gloves. This could allow Dhoni to come in as a specialist batsman, but the Jharkhand management has not given any such indications yet.
MSK Prasad, the chairman of selectors has already made it very clear that communication is one of the biggest tools when it comes down to selecting a player and that senior players need to made understood as to their position within the hierarchy.
"We have no information as to whether Dhoni will be playing any Ranji Trophy game or not. In any case, he has already retired from the longer format. The information we have is that he is doing his regular training with the Jharkhand team," chairman of senior selection committee MSK Prasad was quoted by the PTI.
However, Rajesh Verma, the JSCA secretary has made it clear that Dhoni is very much part of the Jharkhand system and that he is a mentor. Also, he clarified that the question of him playing First Class cricket is certainly out of the window.
The ball is fairly and squarely in Dhoni's court and how he decides to go ahead will be keenly observed.
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