MS Dhoni catches cold in hot Chennai

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag were the only absentees as Team India resumed training here on Thursday. While Dhoni took a day off due to common cold, Sehwag is recovering from a sore right knee.

Sehwag may or may not resume training on Friday, but he is more than certain to play against the West Indies on Sunday.

BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, who paid a visit to the media centre during the England-West Indies match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Thursday, confirmed that Sehwag will indeed be playing against the West Indies.

Meanwhile, the others sweated it out in a full-fledged training session at the IIT Chemplast ground on Thursday afternoon.
Interestingly, chief selector Kris Srikkanth was present at the ground.

The former India skipper spoke to coach Gary Kirsten for about 20 minutes at the start of the session.

India’s bowlers haven’t had a great time at the World Cup and Srikkanth was seen encouraging them during the training session. In fact, ‘Chika’ took time out to speak to each of the bowlers. Later, he was seen talking to Yuvraj Singh.

Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar, who is just one big knock away from his 100th international century, was as focused as ever.

On Thursday, Tendulkar was seen practising his favourite cover drive during an hour-long session with Kirsten. Tendulkar, though, took a break when he saw Kirsten advising Yusuf Pathan. The maestro was seen helping Pathan with his technique.

The bowlers were seen training intensely. Ashish Nehra, India’s ‘villain’ in Nagpur, was bowling his heart out at the nets. Clearly, Nehra wants to make amends.