Picture Credit: Twitter/@BCCIWomen and BCCI/IPL
India captain Mithali Raj reckoned that the call to decide what would be a good time to declare their second innings and perhaps try and push for a win over Australia in the one-off Test match against the hosts was a tricky one. Eventually, the historic pink-ball Test between the two countries ended in a draw on Sunday.
While the tourists clearly looked the better side in the match in which more than 80 overs were lost in the first two days due to rain, several Indian fans and cricket experts hoped to see India declare at Tea on Day 4 but that did not happen as they came out to bat again and declared only after they had practically eliminated an Australia win out of the equation giving them a target of 272 runs in less than session.
During the post-match press conference when Mithali was asked why did she change her call at the toss, she cheekily remarked that she did not want her toss-losing habit to become a legacy. She added that maybe she needs to learn from MS Dhoni how to win a toss.
The video of the incident was shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. "Talk about taking a cue from @msdhoni to win the toss ??#TeamIndia | @M_Raj03 | #AUSvIND," it was captioned. Notably, MSD won 158 out of 332 tosses as captain of the Indian team.
Check it out here:
As far as Dhoni is concerned, he has successfully led the Chennai Super Kings to a playoff berth this year. While the Men in Yellow were the first team to be ruled out of the playoffs race last year, they completed a phenomenal comeback to become the first team to reach the playoffs this season. Moreover, they are also certain of finishing inside the top two and get an extra game, if the need arises in the business end.
After IPL 2021, Dhoni will reunite with the Indian cricket team but in a different capacity. He is set to be part of the dressing room as a mentor and it would be interesting to see whether India can finally end their ICC title drought of recent years with Dhoni yet again part of the dressing room.