MS Dhoni would not be witnessing India vs Australia third Test at Ranchi in his hometown due to his priorities in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2016-17. Everyone expected him to show up after his recent visit to the stadium to inspect Ranchi pitch made headlines. His presence would have been a crowd pleaser as Dhoni had retired from Test cricket for a while now and his fans would have emerged in large numbers in during the third Test starting March 16.
Dhoni has been given the responsibility of captaining the Jharkhand side for Vijay Hazare Trophy 2016-17. But due to this, he will be missing out on the opportunity of witnessing the first ever Test to be played on his hometown’s soil, Ranchi. After being sacked from the captaincy of Rising Pune Supergiants, Jharkhand is the only team Dhoni has been captaining.
Jharkhand team manager, PN Singh revealed, “Our team arrived in Delhi and Dhoni is flying in a day later. We have a knockout match against Vidarbha on 15th and the semi-final on March 17. We are confident of reaching the semifinal in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and hence Dhoni’s presence at the Ranchi stadium is “unlikely”,”
“They didn’t travel in a train this time because we have given a 2-day break to all team members and players have gone home at their different destinations from Kolkata. This time a journey to Delhi will be on the plane. It is about 1200 km journey between Ranchi and Delhi and therefore all team members will be travelling in a plane,” the manager clearing the air over whether Dhoni travelling via train again or not.
On his visit to the Ranchi stadium for pitch inspection, Dhoni did not give any inputs the curator because he is not current Test player but he made sure that everything is in order before the historic Test to be played at Ranchi after a spectacular win for India at Bengaluru.
