Reacting strongly on MS Dhoni’s retirement reports, India captain Virat Kohli lauded the former skipper’s contribution saying ‘he always thinks about Indian cricket and there is no replacement for experience’. Kohli further stated that the decision to retire should be entirely left on Dhoni himself and no one should give their opinion on that matter.
Dhoni’s retirement reports spread like wildfire after Kohli uploaded a picture with the former captain with the caption, ‘A game I can never forget. Special night. This man, made me run like in a fitness test @msdhoni’. Such was the impact of the photo that India’s chairman of selectors MSK Prasad and Dhoni’s wife Sakshi had to come out and deny the reports.
“Experience is always going to matter whether you like it or not. Many players have proven in the past that age is just a number and even Dhoni has done that a lot in his career. One thing great about him is that he thinks for Indian cricket. When to stop playing cricket, is completely an individual decision. No one should give opinions regarding the matter,” Kohli told reporters ahead of the first T20I against South Africa at Dharamsala.
Dhoni is not a part of the team squad for the three-match series against South Africa. The wicket-keeper has gone on a self-imposed break after the World Cup and is reportedly is in USA right now.
Talking about the upcoming series, Kohli said the side wanted to give opportunities to guys who have been performing well in the domestic circuit for the past two to three years.
He also said that the team has the roadmap for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.
“We wanted to give opportunities to players who have done well for the past two years in the domestic circuit and T20 cricket in the IPL. It is about finding the best possible balance we can for the side and not necessarily stick to one particular type of balance. If other teams can bat till number nine, so why cannot we? Whatever decisions are made, they are made looking at the future,” Kohli added.
“The first two to three T20I series will help us assess every situation. Definitely the roadmap for T20 World Cup in 2020 is on our mind. It is an exciting prospect looking at the new bunch of guys in our lineup,” he further said.
The Men in Blue are coming off a winning run in the limited-overs format as they defeated Windies in both T20I and ODI series.
India defeated Windies 3-0 in the T20Is whereas they outclassed the team from the Caribbean 2-0 in ODI series.
India’s squad for three T20Is : Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, and Navdeep Saini.
The side will take on Proteas in three-match T20I series and three-match Test series..
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