Former India fielding coach reveals surprising details about MS Dhoni’s retirement
MS Dhoni (Image Credit: Twitter)
Former India skipper MS Dhoni played his last international game during India’s 2019 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand. In that game, he and Ravindra Jadeja tried to win the game after the team was reduced to 92/6. However, they failed to do and billions of Indian hearts were broken. After this, Dhoni went on a hiatus from the game and didn’t speak a word about his playing career.
On August 15, 2020, the wicketkeeper batter announced his retirement alongside Suresh Raina. Meanwhile, more than two years after this, former India fielding coach R Sridhar revealed the details of the Ranchi player’s retirement. The former said that during India’s tour of the West Indies in 2019, he knew that MS has played his last game for India.
“I can now reveal that at the time of the interview to the Indian Cricket Board, which I attended from Antigua, I was reasonably certain that for all practical purposes, MS had played his last match for the country. He hadn’t announced it, of course, but I will tell you why I knew. On the morning of the reserve day in our World Cup semifinal against New Zealand in Manchester, I was the first person at the breakfast hall. I was nursing my coffee when MS and Rishabh walked in, picked up their stuff and joined me at my table,” Sridhar wrote as he shared the story in his book, ‘Coaching Beyond- My days with the Indian cricket team’.
MS Dhoni told Rishabh Pant that he didn’t want to miss the team bus: R Sridhar
Sridhar further revealed the conversation between Rishabh Pant and Dhoni during the 2019 WC semifinal against the Blackcaps. The game was extended on the second day as the rain didn’t let the game conclude on the original day. Ahead of the start of play on the reserve day, Pant asked Dhoni whether he would love to join some of his teammates for a ride to London. However, the latter denied saying that he didn’t want to miss the team rides for the last time.
“New Zealand had only a couple of overs to bat out and we’d start our innings thereafter, so the match would end reasonably early. Rishabh told MS in Hindi, ‘Bhaiyya, some of the guys are planning to leave for London today itself privately. Would you be interested?’ MS replied, ‘No, Rishabh, I don’t want to miss my last bus drive with the team.'”
