Cricket / BCCI share 1st pictures of Dhoni as mentor of Team India, call him 'King'

Cricket Desk: On the eve of the T20 World Cup 2021 warm-up fixture against England, Team India kicked off its preparation for the tournament. The complete coaching staff headed by Ravi Shastri was present in the first practice session for the ICC event. The list of coaches attending the session also included 'mentor' MS Dhoni.

The former India skipper received a warm welcome from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after he joined Team India's camp. The apex board took to Twitter to share a pic of Dhoni working with head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and other members of the coaching staff.

This is the first time when Dhoni has donned the mentor's hat at the highest level. After the appointment, the BCCI had confirmed that the former India skipper will only be working for the ICC event. Check out Dhoni's pics from the practice session.

This is the final event for the other members of the coaching staff as well as their contracts end next month. The new coaching staff will work with Team India for the next two years starting November 2021.

India kick off their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign against Pakistan on October 24. Following the match against arch-rivals, India will take on New Zealand and Afghanistan on October 31 and November 3, respectively. Their next two fixtures will be against qualifying teams on November 5 & 8.

The final of the ICC event will be held on November 14. Before the start of the Super 12 round, India will take on England and Australia in warm-up fixtures. Both the matches will take place in Dubai.

Team India's squad for T20 World Cup: Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.