Mahendra Singh Dhoni, one of the legends in Indian cricketing history, hung up his boots on his illustrious international cricketing career on 15th August 2020 when the whole world was inside their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a really sudden decision as nobody saw it coming because there was no cricket going on at that moment, especially in Indian cricket. Dhoni took to Twitter and posted a video and its caption was, “from 19:29 hours consider me retired.”
When Dhoni was playing with the Indian team, R Sridhar was the fielding coach of the Indian Men’s cricket team for many years. He had played with Dhoni for many years and knew him well. R Sridhar in his newly released book, ‘Coaching Beyond – My days with the Indian cricket team’, has made a shocking revelation that says Dhoni had made up his mind to retire during the 2019 World Cup only and it was not at all a sudden decision.
Sridhar said that in a conversation with Rishabh Pant, M S Dhoni said that he doesn’t want to miss his last ride with the team in the team bus. This conversation happened on the reserve day of the high-voltage World Cup semi-final match between India and New Zealand.
MS Dhoni made up his mind to retire in 2019 World Cup itself, hints at Pant, ex-coach reveals https://t.co/OeV4KipeVR
— DEE NEWS (@DEENEWS_IN) January 13, 2023
Sridhar quoted the whole incident in his book which happened that day and said he knew almost knew what was to come even before Dhoni announced it. It is a very interesting thing that Sridhar has told in his book and it tells a lot about how thoughtful Dhoni was for the team. He knew his time was over and it was the right time for transition among the young and the old generation players.
Dhoni’s last international match was against New Zealand in that World Cup semi-final which India lost very closely. Dhoni had kept the hopes of the whole nation alive but everything finished as soon as he got run out by a brilliant throw from Martin Guptill. Dhoni gave his all for the team whenever he stepped onto the field for his country and will be remembered as one of the cricketing giants in India as well as in World cricketing history.
