IPL 2020 | My suggestion to Dhoni will be to increase his exercise drills and batting time, insists Javed Miandad

10/19/2020

Javed Miandad has insisted that his suggestion to MS Dhoni would be to increase his exercise drills and batting time at the nets to increase his match fitness. He added that he used to play cricket with his brain and if the same is done then the player can play irrespective of his age.

Having announced his international retirement before this edition of IPL, all eyes were on MS Dhoni as fans wanted to get a glimpse of the vintage Dhoni. However, he hasn’t set the tournament on fire with his batting as he has struggled to find his groove. In the early part of the season, he was batting pretty low owing to a lack of match practice and form. Later, he did start coming little up in the batting order but he has been failing largely.

To compound problems, Chennai Super Kings under Dhoni’s leadership have not been able to hit form in IPL 2020 and are languishing in the seventh position in the points table. Former Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad talked about the wicket-keeper batsman and suggested that even though he looks physically fit, Dhoni needs to work to increase his match fitness.

“I played cricket with my brain. If you use your brain, you can play irrespective of your age. Maybe, you won’t be the player you used to be, but you would still be pretty useful,” Miandad told Indian Express.

“My suggestion to Dhoni will be to increase his exercise drills and batting time at the nets. If he is doing 20 sit-ups (for example), he can increase it to 30. If he doing five sprints, he can increase it to eight. If he is spending an hour at the nets for batting practice, he can increase it to two hours. It’s not necessary that you have to do it at a stretch. You can do it in parts. You can do it in three sessions – morning, afternoon and evening. Dhoni knows this and maybe, he is already doing that.”

Dhoni will now look to find form when CSK clash with Rajasthan Royals on Monday in a must-win match for the side.