Asia Cup 2018: MS Dhoni supervises Indian players during net session in Ravi Shastri's absence

Dhoni took up the role of a mentor as India’s head coach Shastri and rest of the support staff haven't arrived in UAE.  

Dhoni with spinner Mayank Markande during India's practice session in Dubai | IANS

As Team India gear up to start their Asia Cup 2018 campaign with a clash against Hong Kong, legendary wicketkeeper batsman MS Dhoni guided his teammates during the practice session at the ICC Academy on Saturday. Dhoni took up the role of a mentor as India’s head coach Ravi Shastri and rest of the support staff haven't arrived in UAE.  

As per a report in Times Now, Dhoni was seen assisting the young pacers who have been sent to Dubai by the BCCI for quality net sessions. Medium-pacers M. Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Siddarth Kaul sweated it out in the nets alongside leg-spinner Mayank Markande and veteran left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem.

India’s stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma and Manish Pandey were the first batsmen to face the bowlers in the nets. The duo spent quite a lot of time in the nets before MS Dhoni donned the helmet. The 37-year-old largely faced spinners during the session. Kedar Jadhav and Ambati Rayudu also honed their skills in the nets.

It is worth mentioning here that six Indian players – Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur – will join the team before the Hong Kong game. All these six players were part of the England Test series that concluded last week.

India will begin its Asia Cup campaign against Hong Kong on September 18, a day before they face arch-rivals Pakistan.

India squad for Asia Cup 2018:

Rohit Sharma (C), Shikhar Dhawan (VC), KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Y Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 17 Sep, 2018

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