Former India captain MS Dhoni who turned 39 on July 7, hasn't played a single match of cricket ever since Team India lost to New Zealand in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup semi-final in England. His untimely break raised the question of his retirement as well but it didn’t go along as he started practicing for the 13th edition of Indian Premier League that remains postponed for the indefinite time period.
However, MS Dhoni has no plans to retire anytime soon as his manager and childhood friend Mihir Diwakar revealed to PTI while he was asked whether Dhoni is thinking about retirement.
He said, "Being friends, we don’t talk about his cricket. But looking at him, he’s not all thinking about retirement. He is very determined to play the IPL. He has worked really hard for this. If you remember he was there in Chennai one month in advance before everything was shut down. He has maintained his fitness regimen at his farmhouse and will start practice after the lockdown is lifted. Everything now depends on how fast the situation returns to normalcy,"
Recently, former India captain Sourav Ganguly also praised Dhoni and cited that he is not just a great finisher but also a great player.
"One of the great players in world cricket. Not just a finisher, I think everyone talks about the way he finishes lower down the order...he batted at No. 3 when I was captain. He got 140 against Pakistan in Vizag. I always believe that he should bat up the order because he is so destructive," Ganguly told Mayank Agarwal in a recent chat for BCCI.
"You know the best player in the shorter format has the ability to hit boundaries at will. You look over a period of time, the history of one-day cricket...the best players can find the fence under pressure consistently and M.S. Dhoni was one of them," he concluded.
Cover picture credits: Sportstar