MS Dhoni’s decision to retire from international cricket all of a sudden has taken many aback. Just like his retirement from Test cricket in 2014, the former India skipper decided to bring down curtains on his limited-overs career out of the blue. While there is no denying that his days in international cricket were numbered, not many were expecting him to retire before this year’s IPL.
MS Dhoni’s future in international cricket was a major talking point for more than a year now. During last year’s World Cup, there were rumours that the wicketkeeper-batsman would retire from the game after the end of the tournament. But to everyone’s surprise, he decided to take an indefinite sabbatical from the game.
Since the semifinal game against New Zealand, he has not played a single game and will return to action next month when the IPL starts. He will be leading Chennai Super Kings in the upcoming edition of the IPL which starts on September 19.
Sunil Gavaskar on MS Dhoni’s retirement:
With MS Dhoni’s decision surprising many, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has explained the reason behind the same. Explaining the rationale behind MS Dhoni’s decision to announce his retirement from international cricket, Gavaskar said he believes the postponement of T20 World Cup might have influenced his decision.
“I think he might have been waiting to see how he performed in the IPL 2020, if the IPL 2020 was to be held in March April. Even now, I think he was waiting to see if the T20 World Cup was going to be held in October-November,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“And once he found out that ICC T20 World Cup has been postponed, that’s when he realised there is no point hanging around, and that’s why I think he has announced his retirement.
“If the T20 world Cup had taken place in October-November, he would have fancied his chances having done well in the IPL to be picked again in the Indian team and then to go out on a high by doing very well for India at the T20 World Cup and win India the T20 World Cup as well,” he added.
The T2o World Cup was scheduled to be held in October-November. But last month, the ICC postponed it due to the pandemic. The ICC announced that T20 World Cup 2021 will be held in India in October-November while T20 World Cup 2022 will be held in Australia.