MS Dhoni has not been included in the upcoming T20 series against Bangladesh. The former Indian captain, however, is yet to announce his retirement from the shorter formats of the game. However, he has not played any international game since India’s semifinal loss in the 2019 World Cup.
Rishabh Pant is now being touted as MS Dhoni’s successor across all formats keeping in my mind Wriddhiman Saha’s age. Rishabh Pant has been named in both T20Is as well as Test squads.
Rishabh Pant took to social media platform Friday and shared a couple of pictures with India’s most successful captain MS Dhoni. In the pictures, Rishabh Pant is sitting with Dhoni, along with his pet dogs. “Good Vibes Only @msdhoni,” the young wicket-keeper has captioned the pictures.
Team India chief selector MSK Prasad while reacting to Dhoni’s exclusion from India’s T20I squad, had said they are ‘moving on’ and are looking at ‘younger options after the World Cup’.
“We are moving on, we are very clear. Post World Cup we have been clear. We started backing (Rishabh) Pant and wanted to see him do well. He may not have had the best of matches but we are clear, we are focusing on him only,” MSK Prasad said after announcing the T20Is and Test squads for Bangladesh series.
Prasad added that the selectors have had discussions with Dhoni and the latter has endorsed the selection committee’s ‘view of backing youngsters’.
A day before the team selection, the BCCI’s newly-elected president Sourav Ganguly when asked about Dhoni’s future had said that ‘champions don’t finish very quickly’. He had also said that till he is around, ‘everybody will be respected’. Sourav Ganguly had also called MS Dhoni a champion cricketer.
PNN
