Former India captain MS Dhoni was pinning his hopes on this year’s IPL to make a return to the Indian team. However, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the prospect of the league looks bleak which has now jeopardised Dhoni’s chances of a comeback. However, as per his CSK teammates, the former wicket-keeper batsman looked in great touch in the pre-season camp.

“Mahi bhai was absolutely focused, training purposefully and was looking really good. He was showing match-like intensity in the way he was batting and keeping and that was rubbing off on others,” Piyush Chawla was quoted by the CSK website.

“Mahi bhai was batting for two to three hours at nets every day, and the way he was hitting the ball no one could say he was returning from a long break. The way he was training was a huge motivation for the rest of us,” Karn Sharma said.

“During match simulations, he was very involved, speaking to the bowlers, and the rhythm he was in, it was a big boost for our team,” Sharma further added.

CSK’s bowling coach, Lakshmipathy Balaji, a former India cricketer, described Dhoni as a natural athlete and said that he was looking forward to the season.

“MS is a natural athlete and supremely fit. He didn’t look rusty, didn’t look one bit like he was away from the game. He was clearly looking forward to the season, the way he was training, batting, keeping and being involved with the team,” Balaji said.

As per team physiotherapist Tommy Simsek, Dhoni put himself through the grind and was training extremely hard.

“For the first time in about 10 years I saw MS do some wicket-keeping training and that goes to show that he was definitely keen, definitely focused to do well this year,” he said.