Champions Trophy to be deciding factor for MS Dhoni's career, says childhood coach

Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni has been a pillar-stone of Indian cricket for over a decade now. It was under his leadership that the Indian team scaled new heights and bagged all major ICC Trophies. However, earlier this year, Dhoni stepped down from the captaincy role and stunned everyone. Soon after his stepping down from the helm, there were talks about Dhoni’s future in Indian cricket. He played as specialist wicket-keeper batsman under the captaincy of Virat Kohli in the home fixtures against England in January.

Currently, he is leading the Jharkhand team in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy. The speculations about Dhoni’s future and the discussions about the same have been endless. One man who arguably knows the game of MS Dhoni the best, is his childhood coach Keshav Banerjee. Banerjee, whose role was beautifully depicted in the biopic of MSD recently, spoke at length about how Dhoni will plan his course of action in the days to come.

He rightly noted that Dhoni has all his focus centered on Champions Trophy. If his performances in the ICC event goes well, then he will continue till the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. He further defended the former skipper saying that with age, it is bound to see a drop in strike rate. Despite heading to the wrong side of the age, he is still managing to keep himself in shape.

“At the moment, his sole focus is on the Champions Trophy. If he’s successful there, he would go on till the World Cup 2019. It’s natural that with age, you would not hit the same strike rate. But his will power and game-analysing sense are the two qualities that make him special. He’s out there playing domestic one-dayers (Vijay Hazare Trophy) to keep himself in shape ahead of the Champions Trophy,” said Banerjee as per the quotes in NDTV.

Earlier, MS Dhoni had taken everyone by surprise when he had stepped down from Test captaincy in 2014 midway in the Australian tour. Reflecting back at the same, his coach said that Dhoni never likes being pushed into a spot. Also, nobody knew that he was going to quit captaincy.

“He never liked to be pushed so he called it quits before any one could point fingers at him in the Tests format. He never kept anyone in the loop, even his best friend or parents did not know when he quit Tests,” he quoted.

Much recently, Dhoni was sacked as the captain of the Rising Pune Supergiants franchise in the IPL. Banerjee was visibly displeased with the move taken by RPS. He, however, pointed out that Dhoni had no other option than to continue playing with Chennai Super Kings not available in the tournament.

“It appeared to me a decision by the team owners as Dhoni did not have any choice now but to play this season (with Chennai Super Kings being suspended),” conceded Banerjee.