Former India captain MS Dhoni decided to call time on his career during the 2019 ODI World Cup, former India fielding coach R Sridhar has revealed. Sridhar, who was with the Indian team between 2014-2021 said that Dhoni, in a conversation with Rishabh Pant had hinted that he was going to retire from international cricket if India were to lose against New Zealand.
“I can now reveal that at the time of the interview with 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,” Sridhar revealed in his latest book ‘Coaching Beyond – My time with the Indian cricket team’.
“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 revealed the details about the day when India played New Zealand in the ODI World Cup semi-final.
“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 wrote in the book, as per Indian Express.
The semi-final against New Zealand turned out to be Dhoni’s final game for the country where he was run out trying to chase down 240 runs. Dhoni would not play another game for India and finally call time on his career on 15 August 2020.
