MS Dhoni trains alone at NCA for UK tour

MS Dhoni during a net session at the NCAu00c3u0083u00c2u00a2u00c3u0082u00c2u0080u00c3u0082u00c2u0088yesterday. Pic/PTI

The best in the business prepare quietly for tougher battles and Mahendra Singh Dhoni is no exception as he went through a rigorous net session at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), far from public gaze, ahead of England tour.

Legends at the business end of their careers prepare and follow a customised blue-print to increase their longevity. Sachin Tendulkar during his last few years in international cricket would train all by himself at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai and Dhoni's training session at NCA today looked similar. He faced hundreds of deliveries with 70 percent being throw-downs.

Dhoni, who took the YoYo test on June 15 with other limited overs specialist, had stayed back and perhaps waited for the hullabaloo around the team to die down before taking the field.

On what would have been the fifth day of the Afghanistan Test match (had it not finished in two days), Dhoni walked inside the National Cricket Academy nets team's throw-down expert Raghu and speedster Shardul Thakur in tow. The next two and half hours was an intense session with Dhoni facing Raghu's customary throw-downs from 18 yards and Thakur's deliveries in between. It was two hours at a stretch and after a break, he resumed batting with Siddarth Kaul also joining the session.

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