Sandeep Patil confident that MS Dhoni will not retire right now
A mediocre series against England had raised the speculations of his retirement.
MS Dhoni’s retirement has been the trending topic for a long time now and the calls for the same increased after his mediocre performance in the recently concluded ODI series against England. He was booed by the crowd at the Lord’s for his slow knock and there were rumours of him hanging his boots soon after the series. The viral video of him collecting the match ball from the umpires after the decider fuelled the speculations even more. However, the former BCCI selector Sandeep Patil is confident that he will not retire now.
Dhoni struggled to get the ball away in the two opportunities he got to bat in the ODIs in England. Many lashed out at him for not going against the bowlers when the required run-rate was increasing with every dot ball. He also had a chance to respond to his critics in the decider but his strike-rate of 70 raised even more questions on his style of batting.
I can assure all his fans
“I can assure all his fans that he is not retiring as of now,” he wrote in his column for the Quint. Sandeep was also the chief selector when Dhoni was at the helm for the Indian team as he went on to say that the veteran is his very good friend and he won’t retire with World Cup only 11 months away.
“I have known him very closely for the last 14 years and I am privileged to have seen him when he was just starting his career. I have worked with him as an India A coach and as a chief selector, and he happens to be a very dear friend of mine now,” he further added.
Sandeep Patil also highlighted Dhoni’s contribution behind the wickets and also picked him as his first-choice wicketkeeper for the World Cup next year. “Many people may not agree with me but I will still pick Dhoni as the first choice wicket-keeper for the World Cup next year. The reason simply is that in the shorter format of the game, Dhoni’s ability behind the stumps is of far more importance than his match-finishing skills,” he added.
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