MS Dhoni was recently dropped from the T20 squad that will play against West Indies at home and away series against Australia which has marked the end of his T20 career. Dhoni was in sublime form in this year’s IPL but his form has dipped since then. The Ranchi lad was said to be dropped as captain Virat Kohli and his deputy Rohit Sharma agreed to prefer a youngster over him in shortest format of the game.
With the exclusion from T20 squad, there were questions asked about his future in ODI format as the rise of Rishabh Pant was pushing Dhoni to perform in order to retain his place in the team. Meanwhile, skipper Virat Kohli has stepped up and said that “Dhoni is still an integral part of the team“.
Quashing the rumours
“MS is an integral part of the team. In T20s he just passed his place to someone younger like Rishabh. I can assure you as a captain that whatever the media is thinking about MS Dhoni is nowhere close to true,” Kohli said in the press conference after winning the ODI series 3-1.
Virat also spoke about the speculation that he and Rohit were the reason why MS Dhoni was left out of the T20 squad.
“The selector has explained what happened. He (Dhoni) was spoken to before taking the decision. I was not a part of that conversation,” he said.