MS Dhoni Likely To Make Himself Available For T20 World Cup: Report

The talks about MS Dhoni’s retirement have re-surfaced in the wake of BCCI’s decision to drop the former India skipper from the central contract list. There are big question marks over his future for quite some time now although there is little clarity over the entire episode. MS Dhoni has not played any form of cricket for India or for his domestic team since the end of the World Cup in July.

Neither the team-management nor the BCCI has given any concrete update on MS Dhoni’s future. Recently, head coach Ravi Shastri tried to make things a bit clear by stating that MS Dhoni is likely to retire from ODIs soon but could be in contention to play the T20 World Cup if he does well in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). But barring this, there is no concrete update on how the future would pan out for MS Dhoni.

No retirement:

BCCI’s decision to leave out MS Dhoni from the central contracts list led to fresh speculation around the player’s playing future, making “#ThankYouDhoni” and “#MSDhoni” trend on Twitter. A number of fans started giving tribute to the 38-year old, assuming that it is all over for the World Cup-winner. However, A Times of India report has confirmed that Dhoni’s absence from the central contracts has nothing to do with his future in the Indian team as he can still play for the Men in Blue.

“But that doesn’t mean he won’t be considered for any selection in the future,” said a TOI source while asserting that the player’s lack of cricketing activity in the past 6 months made him ineligible for the central contract.

The TOI report also confirmed that Dhoni would not bring down curtains on his career before the conclusion of the 2020 IPL season and is expected to make himself available again – most likely only for the T20 format – as the countdown to the T20 World Cup in Australia starts. Thus, his addition to the national team will depend a lot on how he performs in the IPL.

“Then it is up to the selectors and it is up to individual performances. What if he single-handedly takes CSK to victory in IPL? Won’t that matter? People should stop jumping the gun. His absence from the annual retainership doesn’t mean a thing,” the source revealed.

A BCCI official further gave the example of Harbhajan Singh, saying that the spinner has not announced his retirement yet and does not have a central contract but does not hog the limelight for that reason.

“Even Harbhajan Singh hasn’t played since 2015-16. He hasn’t announced his retirement either. Nobody wants to ask him why he hasn’t done it. Maybe Dhoni makes a bigger headline and people love headlines,” said the official.

“Retirement, be it Dhoni or Harbhajan or any other cricketer, is a very personal decision. Selecting or dropping a player is the selection committee’s decision. Dhoni will not play in the ODIs again. So how can he be part of the central contracts?,” he added.

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