Mumbai: Late on Friday evening, MS Dhoni’s fans were given a rude shock as Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary announced India’s T20I squads for West Indies and Australia series.
MS Dhoni did not feature in either squad while Virat Kohli was given a rest for the three-T20I series against the West Indies. Rohit Sharma will lead India in Kohli’s absence but the regular India captain will be back for T20Is vs Australia.
With Dhoni being struck off the squad, experts and fans begun contemplating if this was the end of Dhoni’s T20I career. However, chief selector MSK Prasad responded in refutation. “He (Dhoni) is not going to play the six T20Is [West Indies and Australia] because we are looking at the second keeper’s slot. So I think we will retain Rishabh (Pant) and Dinesh Karthik. So they will be getting a chance to keep and bat.”
“It is not the end of Dhoni in T20Is,” Prasad told the press. Even though Prasad said that Dhoni will be back in the T20I squad, many experts felt that this was an indication to where Dhoni’s career was going in the Twenty20 International format.
Dhoni has represented India in 90 Tests, 329 ODIs and 93 T20 matches since making his debut in 2004 in a one-day game against Bangladesh in Chittagong.The player once dubbed Captain Cool retired from Tests in 2014 and then relinquished the limited-overs captaincy in 2017.
The first of three T20 matches in Australia will be played in Brisbane on 21 November before the teams move to four Tests and four one-day internationals.
The Indian selectors have included batsman Rohit Sharma and opener Murali Vijay for the Test matches starting 6 December in Adelaide. Wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel is also part of the 18-member Test squad while injured all-rounder Hardik Pandya has still not recovered to feature in the team.