MS Dhoni, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir,
Twitter

While many voices from different quarters have been asking MS Dhoni to retire from all formats of international cricket, he has found a strong supporter in Javed Akhtar. The Indian poet has requested the former skipper to not consider retirement as Team India needs him and his game.

After Team India’s defeat at the hands of New Zealand at the semi-final of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019, Javed Akhtar took to Twitter to support the team. In a tweet, He requested MS Dhoni to not consider taking retirement and also asked all the critics to stop asking him about retirement.

Chasing a modest target of 240, the Indian top order suffered a stunning batting collapse to leave the team reeling at 24 for four. But the fans knew MS Dhoni was the man who could take them over the finish line in a crunch semi-final. Dhoni walked in to bat after the dismissal of Dinesh Karthik as India’s score read 71 for 5.

MS Dhoni, Martin Guptill
Photo Credit: Getty Images.

Dhoni went on to score 50 and add 106 runs for the seventh wicket with Ravindra Jadeja. Had it not been for Dhoni and of course Jadeja, India would have suffered a much bigger defeat in the semi-final against New Zealand.

MS Dhoni’s understanding of the game is an advantage for India:

Ravindra Jadeja fell to Trent Boult for a valiant 77 but with MS Dhoni at the crease, there was still a belief that India would be able to gun down the total and seal a ticket to the Lord’s final on July 14. But as Martin Guptill’s direct throw hit the stumps to run out India’s wicket-keeper batsman, India lost all hopes for a World Cup final qualification.

MS Dhoni
Photo Credit: Getty Images.

Digging into his tweet, it read ”As a middle order batsman or a WK M S Dhoni is a totally dependable n trustworthy. Virat is graceful enough to accept that Dhoni’s understanding of game is an advantage for the team. One can see that a lot of cricket is still left in Him . Why even talk about his retirement.”