The star Chennai Super Kings Batsman Suresh Raina opened up about MS Dhoni’s fitness level, IPL 2020 pre-season camp and MS Dhoni’s role in his success at CSK. He expressed his thoughts and observations on the Star Sports show Cricket Connected.
MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina have proved to be the batting backbones of CSK in IPL. With Suresh Raina being the top scorer for the franchise with 4527 runs and MS being the second-highest run-scorer with 3858 runs. Suresh Raina did not have a great season last year. However, MS Dhoni had an outstanding run at IPL 2019 and would hope to continue the run when IPL 2020 starts.
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Raina spoke about how the senior members got a chance to bat together at the CSK nets. He added that MS Dhoni was putting in the additional effort at practice and batted for longer hours at nets than usual.
He also explained that to manage with their increasing age, the senior players at CSK had to put in extra effort during practice in the process of preparing for the actual match.
“When you spend the day at the nets, from gym workouts to fielding workouts to batting, then the next morning it leads to some stiffness in the body. We are that stage when the body has become a little slower and you have to put in the extra effort and work for 5 hours for a 3-hour training so that you can play a 4-hour match without getting tired."
While talking about MS Dhoni, he said that Dhoni took it lightly and just focussed on the gym in the initial days. However, he was playing shots beautifully and was not getting tired. He said he usually practices longer but went the extra mile at this IPL 2020 preseason camp.
“We used to have a gym session from 9:00AM or 9:30AM, a pool session in the afternoon and we would leave by 5PM after coming at 9:00AM or 9:30AM."
He restated that Dhoni’s preparations were different this time. He also said that he hopes for the IPL to restart soon for people to get to see what he himself got to witness and know how well Dhoni is prepared.
Raina also opened up about the role MS played in his batting and decisions. He revealed that Dhoni has always let him bat freely. He would sometimes give him a warning but would always leave Raina to take the final call.
“He would not try to change anything but he would let you know the outcome/ result and how the situation of the team will be. So, he is also covering my batting and he is also telling me where the team can be. This allows me to make a compact decision.”
On Monday, Raina was seen sharing a candid throwback picture wherein he is enjoying a laugh with his fellow teammate MS Dhoni. He took to social media and uploaded the picture with the caption reading: “To Moments that matter #throwback”.
Dhoni was last seen in the professional cricketing arena 10 months back at the World Cup 2019. Ravi Shastri had earlier stated that MS Dhoni’s performance at IPL 2020 will decide his return to the national team. CSK and his fans are longing for the restart of IPL and return of Dhoni.
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