MS Dhoni suffers injury, doubftful for IND vs AUS 1st ODI

Senior Indian cricketer MS Dhoni has suffered an injury ahead of the first ODI against Australia and he is doubtful for the game on Saturday. The team management hasn’t given any confirmation so far on Dhoni’s injury.

Dhoni suffers an injury during training session

Team India was having a training session on Friday ahead of the first ODI. During this session, the Indian wicket-keeper suffered an injury while taking throwdowns.

Dhoni first had a lengthy batting session after which he was taking throwdowns from Team India’s support staff member Raghavendra.

One such throw bounced awkwardly and hit the former Indian skipper on his forearm. The blow was severe as Dhoni was seen in some pain and he didn’t bat afterwards.

Snapshots from training session on 1st ODI eve in Hyderabad #TeamIndia #INDvAUS @Paytm pic.twitter.com/o2244oniTl

— BCCI (@BCCI) March 1, 2019

No confirmation on Dhoni’s availability yet

The team management hasn’t given any confirmation yet on Dhoni’s availability for the first game. With the World cup approaching, the BCCI would want their core players to be fully fit and hence there are doubts over Dhoni’s participation in the first game.

Pant to keep wickets in Dhoni’s absence?

If the former Indian skipper doesn’t play in the first ODI, India may go ahead with Rishabh Pant as the wicket-keeper. Pant who is seen as a strong contender for the place of back-up wicket-keeper for the World Cup had a below par T20I series against New Zealand and Australia and hence he will be looking to make some impact in this ODI series.

Also read: Shaun Marsh to miss 1st IND ODI; Alex Carey in, Finch to open

India also have the option of using KL Rahul as the makeshift wicket-keeper which will open another spot in the middle order to try an extra batsman. Rahul scored two good knocks in the T20I series and is once again back in the contention for the World Cup squad.

India’s squad for Australia ODI series-

Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3rd, 4th & 5th ODI), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Vijay Shankar, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Siddharth Kaul (1st and 2nd ODI), Ravindra Jadeja.