Test series won, now India set sights on limited-overs contest

Sydney, January 9 

While the Test team is still savouring the maiden Test series win in Australia, the limited-overs specialists, including veteran MS Dhoni, hit the nets at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday. With the 2019 ODI World Cup on the horizon, the focus has firmly shifted to white-ball cricket. India have a long white-ball season lined up ahead of the marquee tournament in England this summer, with three ODIs in Australia and another five ODIs in New Zealand along with a three-match T20I series. 

Australia will then visit India for a return leg of five ODIs and two T20Is, before the 2019 Indian Premier League season gets underway on March 23.

Dhoni, along with Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Dinesh Karthik and Khaleel Ahmed, have joined the Indian team here. On Wednesday, four members of the newly arrived bunch trained at the SCG. Dhoni, Dhawan, Jadhav and Rayudu went through the paces ahead of the first ODI in Sydney on Saturday.

Meanwhile, former Australia and Netherlands pacer Dirk Nannes complimented Jasprit Bumrah for his ‘tough’ step up from limited-overs to Test cricket without any disruption in rhythm or fitness.

“I think the change from white ball to Test cricket is easier when you have got the skills, and he certainly does have that. But the challenge is to be able to do it consistently – hitting the same spot time and time again, and he does that exceptionally well,” Nannes said.

 “I think his dismissal of Shaun Marsh in Melbourne was absolutely magnificent. I cannot think of many other situations where a batsman was set up so beautifully, and the bowler executed a T20 skill in a Test to dismiss him. That was something special,” he added. — PTI