Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a good chance of making it to the Indian team for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year, head coach Ravi Shastri reiterated in an interview with News18.
The last time Dhoni played competitive cricket was in India’s semi-final defeat to New Zealand in the ICC World Cup semi-final in New Zealand last July. Since then, the 38-year-old has hardly made any public appearances and has given no hint of his retirement plans.
Shastri believes that the former India captain will pull down the curtains on his One-Day International career soon, but could be interested in playing T20 cricket.
“He’s finished [with] Test match cricket, in all probability he’ll finish one-day cricket,” said Shastri. “At his age, I think probably the only format that he would want to play is T20 cricket. Which means, he’ll need to start playing again, get into the groove. [He’s] definitely going to play the IPL, We’ll see how his body reacts.”
What Shastri’s statement suggests is that Dhoni will be in with a chance to make it to the T20 World Cup Down Under if he has a good Indian Premier League season. Even in November last year, Shastri had said that Dhoni’s participation in the T20 World Cup depends on his performance in the IPL.
“It all depends on when he starts playing and how he is playing during the IPL,” Shastri had been quoted as saying by IANS. “What are other people doing with the wicket-keeping gloves or what is the form of those players as opposed to Dhoni’s form. The IPL becomes a massive tournament because that could be the last tournament after which more or less your 15 players (for the T20 World Cup) are decided.”
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