Team India coach Ravi Shastri has dismissed all the rumours and speculations of Dhoni’s retirement as he revealed Dhoni’s real intention behind taking the match ball from the umpire.
Cricket news: There was enough speculation going around about Dhoni’s retirement
Dhoni was seen taking the match ball from the umpire after the 3rd match between India and England ended, which was won by England leading to a 2-1 series victory.
Speculations rose in social media that Dhoni is likely to retire from all formats as it is a tradition that a player takes the match ball of his last match along with him as a memoir.
Shastri’s comments came on Wednesday amidst all the hullabaloo on Twitter as he said, “That’s rubbish. MS is not going anywhere.”
Shastri later revealed that Dhoni had taken the match ball along with him just to show it to the Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun to show him the wear and tear of the ball.
“MS wanted to show the ball to Bharat Arun. He wanted to show him the wear and tear the ball had endured, to get a general idea of what the conditions were like.”
“But right now, all this clamour is nonsense. He just wanted to show the ball to Arun to just have a look at it after close to 45 overs had been bowled,” Shastri told Times of India.
Dhoni had retired from Tests in 2014 and until now he has played 321 ODIs and 93 T20Is. He has scored 10046 runs in ODIs with an average of 51.25 which includes 10 centuries and 67 fifties. He has scored 1487 runs in T20I with an average of 37.17 which includes two half-centuries.
Dhoni reached the 10000-run landmark in the second ODI against England at Lord’s and became the fourth Indian and 12th overall to achieve this feat.
He has now joined the ranks of the elite list which consists of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Kumar Sangakkara, Brian Lara and Sanath Jayasuriya. Dhoni is the second wicketkeeper after Kumar Sangakkara to achieve this feat.
India has won the 2011 World Cup, 2007 World Twenty20 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.