Advertisement

WATCH: MS Dhoni meets Team India ahead of IND vs NZ 1st T20I, video goes viral

IND vs NZ 1st T20I: MS Dhoni meets Hardik Pandya and co ahead of India's first T20I match against New Zealand

WATCH: MS Dhoni meets Team India ahead of IND vs NZ 1st T20I, video goes viral Source: Twitter

Former India captain MS Dhoni met the Men in Blue T20I side, who are set to take on New Zealand in the first T20 of the 3-match series on Friday (January 27) in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Hardik Pandya will lead Team India in their 3-match T20I series against the Kiwis as permanent captain Rohit Sharma has been rested along with veteran batters KL Rahul and Virat Kohli.

Young guns like Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan and more had the golden opportunity to meet India's most successful captain in history, MS Dhoni in Ranchi.

Checkout the video here...

Kohli, Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Sami have been rested in this series following India's Test series against Australia starting from February 2. The video shared by BCCI of MS Dhoni meeting the team during their training session is going viral at the moment.

Coming to the Kiwis, former New Zealand cricketer Craig Cumming is unhappy with head coach Gary Stead's persistence with opener Finn Allen, who failed with the bat in the recently-concluded three-match ODI series against India. The hosts whitewashed the Kiwis 3-0 with Allen, 23, scoring two consecutive ducks and a 40, raising doubts about his selection in the New Zealand side with the ODI World Cup in India less than nine months away.

The cricketer had made his 50-over debut last year with a few impressive scores against Ireland and the West Indies but has quickly gone into a downward spiral.

"I'm concerned around the style of cricketers we're trying to produce. I want to produce Devon Conways, I want to produce Kane Williamsons; the guys that have got craft and can bat and they've got more than one (skill)?," Cumming told SENZ Mornings on Thursday.

"Finn Allen at the moment, he's young, he's learning but (he's in a) really important position for us at the top of the order and he seems to be at the moment a one-pace, one-line hitter. At the moment it's failing and maybe Finn's getting the experience, I mean they've got to stick with him, but he's not producing enough at the moment."

Cumming compared Allen with India skipper Rohit Sharma, who is not just a strong hitter of the ball but also has the required skill-set to play according to the situation.

"You look at Rohit Sharma and the way they (India) play, yes they're powerful but they also have skill in the way they go about executing their plans. I just worry at the moment that Finn's sort of been thrown into that mix where it's one pace, batter up, it's a baseball style mentality; try to hit home runs and that's all we want." (With PTI inputs)