Dhoni has no immediate plans to quit, says his long-time friend

The cricketing fraternity is wondering when the veteran Indian wicket-keeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni will formally retire from international cricket. The expectation was till the cricket World Cup as the fans were thinking the Ranchi cricketer would hang up his boots after a fairy-tale end. But after India failed to make it a fairy-tale end by losing the semi-final to New Zealand, the conclusion of the Dhoni story still goes on.

The uncertainty over Dhoni’s retirement call has left the entire Indian cricketing fraternity in a spot. The selectors are wondering what to do with him ahead of picking the squads for the West Indies tour starting next month. Experts are coming up with the suggestion that the selectors should talk to him over his future plans though nothing concrete has happened so far on that front.

Amid all the speculation, Dhoni’s long-time friend and business partner Arun Pandey has said that the former has no immediate plans to call it a day.

“He has no immediate plans to retire. The constant speculation over the future of a great player like him is unfortunate,” Arun Pandey was quoted as saying by News18.

Pandey has been associated with Dhoni for a long time and also handles his business interests besides leading Rhiti Sports, a company that looks after sports management.

Dhoni’s slow batting in World Cup came under scanner:

Dhoni’s slow approach to batting in some matches in the World Cup came under scrutiny. He struggled to put the spinners away in the game against Afghanistan as India failed to put up a big total. He was also accused of not accelerating the innings in the match against England that India lost 31 runs. His vital run-out in the semi-final against New Zealand that saw India falling short of the target by 19 runs had left the entire nation in tears.

There were calls for Dhoni to continue playing though it was more an emotional appeal. The selectors, meanwhile, are tied up with the more difficult aspect which is dealing about Dhoni’s future plans. Dhoni has played 350 ODIs in his career till now since making debut in 2004, scoring over 10.7k runs at an average of fifty plus.