India captain MS Dhoni says he’s excited about facing off with new Australian Twenty20 skipper George Bailey at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday night.
Dhoni plays alongside Tasmanian Bailey in the Indian Premier League with the Chennai Super Kings and thinks Australian selectors have made the right choice by handing the 29-year-old the captaincy for the T20 series against India.
“He’s an interesting character, he plays good cricket, he’s someone who can play his strokes, he’s very intelligent and understands the game well,” Dhoni said of Bailey, who will be making his first start for Australia in any form of the game on Wednesday.
“He’s a really good character to have.”
Dhoni also said his team’s younger players were relishing the opportunity of taking on evergreen left-arm spinner Brad Hogg after the 40-year-old’s recall to the T20 line-up.
“Brad’s an experienced guy and what we have seen is spinners are wily, the more they age the better they get,” Dhoni said.
“He’s also someone who has done well in the T20 locally over here so it’ll be a nice contest between the youngsters and him.”
The Indians trained at the SCG on Tuesday after damp practice wickets hampered their training session at ANZ Stadium on Monday.
Dhoni said it was hardly ideal to have had so little time in the Sydney Olympic Park venue, but with so little cricket having been played at the venue it was unlikely to give Australia much of an edge.
“If you just talk about tomorrow’s venue, I don’t think there’s many people who have played there,” he said.
“It remains the same for the home team as well as the touring team. That’s something that’s pretty even but of course we would have liked to have gone there and spent a bit more time.”