MS Dhoni gets good practice while Jharkhand bows out of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015

Team India travel Down Under to play a 5-match ODI series and a 3-match T20I series against Australia in January 2016. The ODI series commences with the first game to be played on 11th January 2016, at Western Australia Cricket Association Ground, Perth. The first of the three-match T20I will be played on 26th January, 2016, at the Adelaide Oval.

This series is very important for the Indian skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the fact that he has not been successful in defending the World Cup title played at the same location in mid-2015.

Thereafter, he lost the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh 2-1. To add insult to the injury, India also faced defeat in the home series of the three-match T20I series against touring South Africa 2-0 (with the third game being a wash-out) and also went on to lose the five-match ODI series 3-2.

Coming out of continuous losses, it is essential for Dhoni to put his best foot forward and bring team India back to the winning ways, more so, with the World T20 2016 that will be played in India right at the doorstep.

Dhoni has a lot of work to do in regrouping the team and also be able to set an example for his teammates with his own performance.

Having been out of competitive cricket for a long time post the ODI series against South Africa, Dhoni thought it fit to play in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015. He decided, and quite rightly so, to take the field, representing his home side, Jharkhand, led by the young Indian pacer Varun Aaron.

The team, Jharkhand, per se, have done very well in the league stage. Winning 5 out of 6 games played, collecting 20 points in the process, they topped the points table in Group B.

Appearing in all the 6 games (5 innings) in the league stage, Dhoni had scored 109 runs at an average of 21.8 with 44 as his personal best. It’s not a great performance from his standard. However, playing in the second quarterfinal game against Delhi, MSD went on to score an unbeaten 70* runs with 5 fours and 4 sixes facing 108 deliveries in 147 minutes.

Hiss heroics went in vain since Jharkhand ended up scoring only 126/10 in 38 overs, chasing a target of 226 set by Delhi, losing the game by 99 runs and ending their tournament engagements.

Having played in 7 games (6 innings – once unbeaten), MS Dhoni has scored 179 runs at an average of 35.80 with 70* as his highest. It is really good to see him get back to scoring ways, but it still needs to be seen whether he would find his groove in the tough series against Australia.

Dhoni’s and team India’s performance Down Under will go a long way in ascertaining their preparedness for the all-important World T20, to be played in India.

Watch: MS Dhoni gets out to Waseem Raza in the Vijay Hazare Trophy