The wait is over. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was back in action wielding his willow, at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Monday.
The Chennai Super Kings skipper hit the nets to kick-start his preparations for the upcoming Indian Premier League that starts on March 29.
Long break
Dhoni, who last played in the World Cup semifinals, arrived in the city late last night and had a nets session with his CSK mates on Monday evening.
The World Cup-winning former India skipper has been out of competitive action since last July and the IPL will be his first major tournament after a long break.
The 38-year-old was recently dropped from the BCCI’s centrally contracted players’ list and has not revealed much about his future plans. With the ICC World T20 to be held later this year in Australia, the IPL will be crucial if he aims to make a comeback.
Like it has been in the past few years, a sizeable crowd was waiting at the gates since 3 p.m. and nearly a 100 witnessed their favourite player in action from the stands that were thrown open, for the first time in nearly eight months.
Along with Dhoni, Ambatti Rayudu, M. Vijay, Piyush Chawla, Karn Sharma, bowlers K.M. Asif, Monu Singh, R. Sai Kishore and N. Jagadeesan were at the venue on Monday. It is to be noted that Rayudu and Suresh Raina were in Chennai last month for a couple of weeks training to get ready for the IPL.
Dhoni faced the likes of spinners Chawla, Karn, Sai Kishore and a few local net bowlers.
Full camp
While the ongoing camp is for players who are available at the moment, the official camp for the three-time champion starts on March 19 with coach Stephen Fleming likely to arrive in the city a day before. Bowling coach L. Balaji and assistant coach Rajiv Kumar were in charge of practice on Monday.