Heavy rain forces India’s training session to be called off

Kolkata has received heavy showers in the last week ahead of the second ODI which has put the game under a shadow of a doubt. Because of the rain, the Eden Gardens wicket has been under covers for a long time and the strip is expected to be on the slower side if the match goes ahead on Thursday.

President of CAB and former India captain Sourav Ganguly recently spoke about the new drainage system which soaks up the water in no time but for that to happen, there should be no rain around. Both teams arrived in the city yesterday and were scheduled to have a practice session on Tuesday. While the Australians took their session indoors, the Indians had to call their session off due to the incessant rains.

Australians training hard to counter spin

Smith’s boys are working hard to negate the spin threat offered by the twin wrist spinners – Chahal and Kuldeep – who picked five wickets between themselves in just nine overs of bowling in Chennai. Regular fall of wickets never kept the visitors in the truncated 21-over contest as they succumbed to a 26-run defeat in the series opener in Chennai.

Adam Zampa, who was hit for three consecutive sixes by Hardik Pandya, emphasized on the significance of getting Dhoni’s wicket early. While Pandya struck a rollicking 83, it was Dhoni’s patient 79 which kept the Indian innings together and propelled them to a decent 281 for 7 after 50 overs.

“MS is an important wicket and we need to get him early. We could not do that in the last game,” Zampa told reporters two days ahead of the second rubber.

Dhoni’s revival in ODIs

After having a poor 15 months in ODI cricket, Dhoni has made a telling statement this year by scoring runs consistently. In 14 innings so far in 2017, Dhoni has managed to get 627 runs at a Bradmenseque average of 89.57. A strike rate of 85.65 is equally impressive. With the presence of big-hitters like Pandya and Jadhav, Dhoni has batted with freedom.