Two cricketers from Jharkhand have credited India captain Mahendra Singh Singh for sharing his overall experience, which has made them achieve best results in the ongoing domestic season of Ranji Trophy 2016-17.
The 27-year-old left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who’s the highest wicket-taker with 50 scalps so far, and Ishan Kishan, who led India U-19 team to the final of the World Cup earlier this year, acknowledged Dhoni’s efforts to help in preparing the Jharkhand side against tough opponents throughout the season.
“It always helps when you have someone like Dhoni bhai to help you. There is no questioning his tactical acumen and I still remember that going into the game against Maharashtra, the wicket wore a slightly greener look. So Dhoni bhai came up to me and said that I should initially look to restrict the batsmen and use variations only after I have tied them down. The move worked wonders and here I am leading the wicket-takers’ tally,” Nadeem said, quoted as saying by CricketNext.
Rising to the occasion, the Jharkhand side has had a good time after thrashing Haryana in the quarter-final game by five wickets to set a semi-final clash against Gujarat in Nagpur.
Ahead of the domestic season this year, Dhoni joined his state side Jharkhand as the mentor which not only boosted the youngsters, but has also become a prime reason for him to practice with the current young crop of cricketers.
On the other side, gloveman Ishan Kishan was instructed by Dhoni to change his stance, which he followed by scoring 719 at an average of 59.91 in 9 matches.
“Dhoni bhai saw me at the nets and walked up to me and said that I needed to curtail my attacking instincts to begin with. He believed that to play a long innings I needed to be a little more compact and I did just that. He asked me to change my stance as well and when it comes from someone like Dhoni bhai, you know you can trust his observation,” Kishan said.
In Ranji this season, the 18-year-old left-handed opening batsman Kishan is at No.12 in the highest run-scorers list.
“I got time to rework my stance and train with my new stance during the camp ahead of the season and I realised that I was feeling a lot better at the crease. I have maintained that stance since and I have seen that it has enhanced my batting,” he added.
Fitness is something that’s the best thing to start the season with, remarked Kishan and Dhoni has been at forefront to work on players’ fitness.
“Dhoni bhai puts a lot of emphasis on fitness. As we all know, he loves to stay at the top of his fitness level. And this time, he ensured that we also worked on our fitness at the start of the season. It was obviously something that wasn’t too common with the domestic teams, but the experience was out of the world,” Ishan revealed.
“To be honest, we have played nine games so far, but we still feel like the season has just started. To be mentally fresh going into the business end of the tournament is very important and we have managed to do that thanks to Dhoni bhai’s efforts,” he concluded.
Jharkhand will face Gujarat at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur in the second semi-final game on January 1st.