India’s ODI captain KL Rahul expressed enthusiasm about the possibility of MS Dhoni attending the first ODI between India and South Africa at the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi.India aim to bounce back from their recent 2-0 Test series loss to South Africa through this ODI series opener in Dhoni’s hometown.
Rahul, who made his ODI debut under Dhoni’s leadership with a century in Harare in 2016, will take on multiple roles similar to Dhoni’s past position, leading the team while keeping wickets and finishing games with the bat. “We’ve all played under him. We’ve been his fans, and we’ve all played together. So we are all friends, and to know someone like MS, it’s a very happy opportunity to know someone as big as MS and someone who is so successful as an Indian player, and we all respect him as a human being. So if he also comes to watch the match, not only the crowd, we will get more excited,” he said in the pre-match press conference. “So, we will also enjoy playing here, and hopefully we can win the game, put up a good performance and entertain the crowd, and for MS Dhoni, he will also feel happy that we won the game.”Rahul confirmed he will continue batting at number six and shared his thoughts on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli‘s return to the ODI series.“I will be batting in the same position. I have been playing at number six since the Champions Trophy, so I will be batting there, and obviously, there are all-rounders like Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Nitish Reddy. We have all these options, so we will see what the best eleven is, and we will make that decision in the evening, and you will know tomorrow,” he added.“Taking singles is as important as hitting boundaries in ODI cricket and in Test cricket, maybe not as much in the T20 format. That’s something Virat has done so well over his career, and it’s something that we’ve looked at Virat and tried to learn. Even in the dressing room, we all talked to him and Rohit about how we can get better as batsmen, and how we can rotate the strike a lot more. He’s obviously the master at doing that in ODI cricket. “We’re really happy that he’s back in the dressing room. He’s very excited to be here and play these games. Their importance at any point is huge. To have senior players in the team obviously makes the dressing room feel a lot more confident. Just having their presence and experience helps out a lot of players in the dressing room and helps out the team. We’re really happy that they’re here.”
