Dhoni hits nets, shows no discomfort

Adelaide, December 7

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni attended an intense training session at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday, showing no sign of discomfort on account of his right thumb injury. That raises the prospect of his participation in the first Test against Australia, starting on December 9.

The injury initially forced him out of the first Test and batsman Virat Kohli was named as the stand-in skipper for the match.

Dhoni joined rest of the team on Friday and, after a day’s rest, attended a practice session, and faced fast bowlers at the nets without any obvious discomfort.

Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron were the most spirited of the bowlers as they worked up genuine pace and beat the bat of frontline batsmen Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara on several occasions. Dhoni also faced the in-form pacers on one of the three practice pitches.

Pujara confident of good showing inAustralia

Cheteshwar Pujara, who had a forgettable tour of England earlier this year, is confident of regaining his touch in the series against Australia.

Talking ahead of the first Test, Pujara said the poor run he endured in the series against England was a blip.

“As a player, I feel there are always some tough times in your career. And England tour was one of those series,” he said.

“You learn from your failures, and failures have taught me so many things. When you are successful, you don’t worry about your game or your mental strength. So when you fail, there are questions asked and that’s the time to grow up as a cricketer and handle that pressure.

“Overall I have done well wherever I have played and England was just a blip in that respect. It was just one of those tours where nothing went my way. As a team also we didn’t do very well there. Overall, we have done well as a unit in the last one year travelling overseas and we are hopeful that we will do well on this upcoming tour as well,” he added.

Pujara had made his Test debut against Australia in the 2010-11 home series, but couldn’t hold on to a permanent spot in the team due to an injury and the selection merry-go-round.

He made a comeback in the 2012-13 home season and made the number three spot his own after the retirement of Rahul Dravid.

“I have analysed my batting over the last two overseas tours. In England I realised a few things that I was doing wrong and needed to work on. I tried correcting that but it didn’t work.”

“I wouldn’t want to reveal my weakness here or what was wrong with my technique in England. However, I do feel that technique is my strong point and I have worked hard at it. Hopefully things will turn around for me now,” Pujara said.

When asked about his subsequent county stint with Derbyshire, the batsman replied, “Surely the county stint was a good experience. I enjoyed the cricket there. Even the Test series was a learning experience but it didn’t go our way.” — Agencies