Former Indian cricketer MS Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket back in 2020 but he played his last game for India in 2019. While it was expected that the star cricketer would retire quietly, without making it a big event, not many expected it to be when he did.
Former India wicketkeeper-batter was the first captain to win all major trophies; he led the team to the inaugural 20-20 World Cup victory in 2007, the ODI World Cup victory in 2011, and the Champions Trophy title two years later. During his captaincy in the longest format of the game, he also won the Test Mace twice.
I was reasonably certain: R Sridhar
R Sridhar, India’s former fielding coach, has now made a shocking revelation about how Dhoni hinted that he had played his final match for India in a conversation with Rishabh Pant, who went on to succeed Dhoni in the wicketkeeping role. Sridhar revealed a conversation between the two wicketkeepers during India’s World Cup 2019 semi-final against New Zealand on the reserve day.
“I can now reveal that at the time of the interview to the BCCI, 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’
“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.’”
Sridhar went on to say that he never told anyone about the conversation out of “sheer respect” for Dhoni. “I didn’t say a word to anyone about this conversation out of sheer respect for the man. He had taken me into confidence. I couldn’t shoot my mouth off. So, I didn’t utter a word not to Ravi, not to Arun, not even to my wife,” said Sridhar.
