Former skipper Sunil Gavaskar said captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become more assertive and added that the faith shown on him by the Board and the selectors will spur him to do better. "If the captain has the confidence of the board and the selectors, it gives him confidence to employ tactics on the field. It's a huge plus. Now that he is doing so well, it will give him even more confidence," Gavaskar said. Dhoni stroked a maiden counter-attacking double hundred to lead India to a comfortable eight wicket victory over Australia in the first cricket Test. "He has changed a bit from the England series. He is more assertive. Towards the end of England series in Nagpur, he was trying to be more assertive, showing displeasure at the lack of efforts by the players and we have seen that in Chennai as well," Gavaskar told a news channel. The legendary opener also tried to reason what Dhoni meant when he said that he never dreamt about representing India. "He (Dhoni) came from a place where cricket was not the number one sport. That might have given him a thought that he would not play for India," Gavaskar reasoned. Gavaskar felt that being a bit detached from the game has also helped him remain a "secure person". "He is a very secure person within himself. He is a very confident man. If tomorrow, he wasn't playing cricket, I dont think he would be regretting anything. He would say I had my time and I enjoyed it. If you have such kind of an attitude, you tend to put on less pressure," he said.
Source :- http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/54560/dhoni-was-more-assertive-in-chennai-gavaskar
Legendary fast bowler Wasim Akram stepped down from the post of mentor and bowling coach of IPL champions Kolkata Knight Riders citing personal reasons. Akram has been an integral part of the team for the past three seasons and was also part of the core team along with chief coach Trevor Bayliss and captain Gautam Gambhir that helped in devising the strategy for the champion side. According to team management, Akram has expressed his desire to spend more time with his family as his two sons Taimur and Akbar are barely in their teens. Akram has been living out of the suitcase for quite a few years now due to his increased media commitments as well as the hectic travelling and camps related to Indian Premier League. KKR CEO Venky Mysore in a media release issued by the franchise stated: "Wasim Akram will be badly missed. He is a legend and a great motivator to have around the team. However, we fully appreciate the reason why he will be unavailable. We hope to work with him in future."
Source :- http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/54552/akram-steps-down-as-kolkata-bowling-coach
India took one hour and 15 minutes on the fifth morning of the first Test against Australia in Chennai to race away to an eight-wicket victory. There were some minor hiccups on the course to victory with both openers perishing in the course. While James Pattinson removed Murali Vijay, who could not clear his lofted drive mid-off, Virender Sehwag was done in by Nathan Lyon. However, Sachin Tendulkar, who joined Cheteshwar Pujara at the fall of the second wicket was in no mood to wait and smashed the off-spinner for two consecutive sixes as India inched closer to victory. Ravindra Jadeja ended a stubborn last-wicket stand between debutante Moises Henriques and Nathan Lyon as Australia managed to add just nine runs to their overnight score. With Henriques left stranded on 81, 19 runs short of a hundred on debut, India had to chase a mere 50 to go 1-0 up in the four-Test series. Pattinson extracted good bounce off the deck and even troubled Vijay in the first over - how Australia wished they had a few more on the board to defend to give the Indians a run for their money. However, with Sehwag finding the fence three times during his innings, the 50-run target never seemed too daunting anyway.
Source :- http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/54554/india-race-to-1-0-lead-with-chennai-victory
