MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni (Credits: Twitter)

Former India skipper MS Dhoni was the biggest notable absentee from Team India’s 15-member squad for the upcoming T20I series against South Africa. Earlier reports had suggested that the selectors were unlikely to pick the veteran in the team. With the eyes now fixed on next year’s T20 World Cup, Team India reportedly wanted to give the players a consistent run.

Thus with Dhoni not in the scheme of things at the moment, his exclusion was very much expected. It should be noted that Dhoni has fallen down the pecking order in T20Is. Last year, he was not selected for the T20I series against West Indies and Australia. He did make a comeback in the subsequent series against New Zealand and Australia but only because the team-management wanted him to have good match practice.

However, things are not as simple as they look. India’s Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad has now confirmed that Dhoni has expressed his unavailability for the series.

“Yes he was unavailable for selection,” MSK Prasad told India Today.

MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni (Credits: Getty)

Dhoni has not played a game since the World Cup. After the end of the tournament, Dhoni had taken a two-month break from the game. He was thus not a part of the series against West Indies. India’s next limited-overs assignment is against Bangladesh in November.

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With Dhoni absent, Rishabh Pant gets another opportunity to cement his place in the game’s shortest format. Other notable omissions from the T20 squad are spin twins – Kuldeep Yadav and Yajuvendra Chahal. Both the players were not a part of the series against West Indies as well. The T20I series against South Africa starts on September 15. Following the T20Is, both the teams will play three Tests.

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