Dhoni opts for heavier, meatier bat

Indians slug it out even as Sehwag, Harbhajan, Rohit skip practice

The sun finally came out of its hiding, washing the City in a bright light with a pleasant breeze accompanying.

The Indians made most of the good weather training on Monday at the Nottingham Rugby Ground known popularly as the Lady’s Bay.

All the Indian members except Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh and Rohit Sharma attended the training session that lasted a little over two hours.

Twenty20 format demands the skill to clear the ropes at regular intervals and it was no surprise to see the Indian batsmen polishing their big-hitting abilities at nets with Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh and skipper MS Dhoni leading the session.

Dhoni batted for more than an hour at the nets with emphasis on long hits. Perhaps, with the aim of improving his scoring rate the wicketkeeper-batsman, who has been batting in low gears these days, checked out some new bats during the net session as well as at the end of it.

He spent nearly 20 minutes or so with the manufacturer exploring various aspects of the bat viz Spyder. “Dhoni asked me about various areas of the bat including its weight, the quality of the willow etc during our chat’’ Gary Stanyer, representative of the Spyderbats Limited, said.

Elaborating on the chat with Dhoni, Stanyer said, “He was particular about the weight of the bat and instructed it to be either 2 Lbs 11 ounce or 2 Lbs 12 ounce. Apart from Dhoni, some other Indian cricketers like Raina and Yusuf also checked the product.’’

He added that the bat, which has a lot of meat in the middle and edges, has no similarity with the Mongoose bat that was unveiled in London a few weeks back. “No, this bat has no similarity with the Mongoose bat and this is more conventional,’’ Stanyer said.

Stanyer said his company has also offered a bat – Stafford bat (black willow and longer handle) – for training purpose to the Indians. “The Stafford bat has been used widely by teams across the world for practice. But it cannot be used in matches as bats within the ICC guidelines have to be used during matches, and this bat is nearly quarter to half an inch less than the existing norms,’’ Stanyer explained.

The West Indian cricketers, training alongside the Indians, too came to have a look at the bat. Dwayne Bravo, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chrish Gayle inspected the bat and also had a word with the manufacturer and the Indian cricketers.

DH News Service