Reports: MS Dhoni focussed on performing in the IPL; to take call on future post the tournament

If you google MS Dhoni, the top-five recommendations (perhaps a hundred-thousand more) would go as ‘MS Dhoni retirement’, ‘Dhoni retirement news’…You get the gist, right! It’s been almost four months of intense speculation. Will he? Won’t he? When would he? Why he shouldn’t? Why he should? Editorials are waiting to be churned out, but the mystery has only deepened.

Ever since India lost the semi-final to New Zealand in the fifty-over World Cup, MS Dhoni has been on an extended sabbatical. Dhoni, who happens to be the only captain to win each of the T20 World Cup [2007], 50-over World Cup [2011] and the 2013 Champions Trophy opted out of the West Indies tour when he went for a 15-day training program with the Indian army. Speculations intensified when Virat Kohli shared a photo of one of their partnerships on the eve of the Indian team selections for the series against South Africa.

MS Dhoni to take a call on International future after the IPL

However, nothing of that sort happened, and every time an Indian squad would be announced before any white-ball assignment, the absence of Dhoni from the team sheet would prop up a lot of questions about his future among the pundits and the fans. However, if the sources are to be believed MS Dhoni has been training for a month now and is focussing on the upcoming IPL season, following which he will take a call on his international future.

“If at all MS will take a call on his future, it will only be after the IPL. You can’t stop speculation as he is such a big player. He is in the best shape possible fitness-wise and has been training hard for the last month. It all depends on when he starts playing and how he is playing during the IPL However the number of competitive games he will play before the IPL will be decided in due course,” a source close to MS Dhoni was quoted as saying by Times Now.

Earlier India’s chief selector MSK Prasad had categorically mentioned that they are “moving on” from Dhoni and looking at the next lineage of Indian wicket-keepers, Ravi Shastri, in a recent interview, has iterated that Dhoni’s future in International cricket will depend on how he performs in the upcoming IPL season.

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