MS Dhoni's Teammates Confirm Ex-India Skipper Not Interested In Playing International Cricket Again

The hopes of seeing MS Dhoni in the Indian jersey once again is diminishing fast with each passing day. The former India skipper has not played a single competitive game since the end of the World Cup in July last year. As soon as the tournament ended, he took an indefinite sabbatical from the game which is yet to end.

The veteran wicketkeeper-batsman would have made his much-awaited comeback last month through the thirteenth edition of the IPL. He had also started his training for the season but the coronavirus pandemic changed everything. In the wake of the outbreak, the BCCI suspended the league till mid-April before deciding to suspend it indefinitely after the lockdown was extended to May 3.

The IPL was seen as the tournament which would have helped MS Dhoni present a case for himself to earn a comeback. But with the future of IPL not at all clear, his future in international career is in limbo. And now a senior Indian cricketer has reportedly stated that the wicketkeeper-batsman has made up his mind on retiring from international cricket.

The unnamed cricketer said that he had had a word with MS Dhoni and that the veteran player isn’t thinking of playing for the Indian cricket team again. The cricketer, however, asserted that Dhoni would be available for the Chennai Super Kings  for the foreseeable future.

“He will take a call probably after the next year IPL on how to go about things in the T20 league,” the player was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.

“Now there is no motivation to play anymore. When there are people he feels who can replace him, he doesn’t want to block their chances,” another teammate of MS Dhoni said.

“When there is nothing to prove, where is the question of playing IPL to get into the Indian team,” another Indian cricket team member, who once played with Dhoni, said.

If the intention was to play in the T20 World Cup, MS Dhoni wouldn’t have stopped playing the shortest format of the game. His rejection of the selectors’ offer to play the home series against South Africa was a strong enough indication that his international journey is over.

“Dhoni can still demand a farewell game, but he isn’t ready to disturb the combination of the Indian cricket team. He believes that Rishabh Pant can do a very good job both behind the stumps and with the bat,” a source close to Dhoni added.

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