AGENCIES,|
DEC 09|15 New Delhi: After a gap of eight years, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be seen playing in the domestic circuit, turning up for his home side Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare trophy beginning Thursday. Dhoni last played for Jharkhand in the East Zone leg of Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Championship in 2007. The national team’s skipper, who quit the Test arena last year, however, won’t be leading his state team. According to reports, Jharkhand State Cricket Association secretary, Rajesh Verma, had offered the captaincy to Dhoni but the 34-year-old turned it down. Fast bowler Varun Aaron was then handed over the captaincy. Earlier, Verma said Dhoni himself expressed the desire to play for the state team. However, there are doubts over Dhoni’s availability for the entire tournament if the Pakistan series is green-flagged by the Indian government. India are expected to play Pakistan from Dec 24 to Jan 5 but the final decision rests with the Government of India as the BCCI still awaits their decision. “He said that in all likelihood he will be available (if there’s no Pakistan series) to play for Jharkhand in Vijay Hazare Trophy. We have not discussed as to how many matches he will play or whether he would like to lead the side,” Verma was quoted in media reports. Jharkhand are in ‘Group B’ along with defending champions Karnataka, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir, Railways, Haryana and Gujarat. They will open their campaign on Thursday against J&K in Alur, Karnataka. Dhoni’s last competitive match was fifth ODI international against South Africa in Mumbai. The domestic stint will help the skipper prepare for the limitedovers tour to Australia, T20Is against Sri Lanka, Asia Cup T20 and the ICC World Twenty20 next year in March. Apart from Parvez Rasool, who has played for India and in the Indian Premier League, the young guns from Jammu and Kashmir have not had a chance to fight it out with the Indian captain. Jharkhand squad: MS Dhoni, Sumit Kumar, Ishank Jaggi, Sourav Tiwary, Anand Singh, Kumar Deobrat, Kaushal Singh, Varun Aaron (captain), Rahul Shukla, Shabaz Nadeem, Sonu Singh, Monu Kumar, S P Goutam, Ankit Dabas and Jaskaran Singh.
