Veteran Indian spinner Piyush Chawla has revealed how Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was gearing up for the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that was earlier scheduled for a start on March 29, 2020. If it wasn’t for novel coronavirus, Dhoni would have made a much-awaited return to competitive cricket after a lengthy sabbatical that kept him out of international selection post the 2019 World Cup.
However, things didn’t go as planned and the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which further postponed the 13th season of the cash-rich league. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, India is also observing an unprecedented 21-day total lockdown which is set to get extended this week due to the spike in virus-infected cases and fatalities.
“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 the others,” official website of CSK quoted the spinner as saying.
The 38-year-old last played for India in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup which India lost to tournament runners-up New Zealand. Dhoni’s name also went missing when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released the centrally contracted players list of the national side post the World Cup.
