MS Dhoni’s omission from T20I squad a caution ahead of World Cup 2019?

The writing was always on the wall. And the fear finally came true on Saturday when former Indian captain MS Dhoni was dropped for the T20I series against the Windies at home and Australia Down Under in November. The 37-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman is going through a lean phase with his bat even though he continues to dazzle with the gloves but the selectors perhaps found it is time to think ahead.

Dhoni’s omission from the T20I squads has also given rise to the speculation that he might not make it to the squad for the World Cup in England next year. The cricketer is perhaps aiming to make the mega event his farewell tournament on the highest stage but after Saturday’s development, destiny perhaps has a separate script prepared for him. Dhoni was replaced with 21-year-old hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.

Dhoni, once a master of limited-overs cricket

Dhoni, who led India to two world titles – T20 in 2007 and 50-over in 2011 – has scored over 11,600 runs in the two limited-overs formats with 10 hundreds and 69 fifties. He averages over 50 in ODIs despite his sluggish form of late and has a strike rate of 127-plus in the T20Is. In T20s, Dhoni has scored 6,075 runs in 297 matches at an even better strike rate of 136-plus. He has played in 93 T20Is for India since making debut in the format in 2006.

As it turns out the decision was taken considering the fact that he will not play the World T20 in 2020 and the team thus gets enough time to have a set keeper in the setup.

“It’s a given that Dhoni won’t be around when next ICC World T20 happens in Australia in 2020, there wasn’t any point continuing with him if he will not play World T20,” a senior Board of Control for Cricket in India official who is close to the selection policy was quoted by reports, according to Times of India.

The year 2018 has been an ordinary one for Dhoni. In the T20Is, he played one inning of 52 off 28 balls in South Africa earlier this year. But if that inning is left out, the cricketer has scored 71 runs from 51 balls in the remaining six games he has played in the year.

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