Tiwary took a jibe at Dhoni's reclusive nature.
Speculations are rife that BCCI has offered the legendary MS Dhoni a mentorship role with the Indian cricket team ahead of the T20 World Cup next year.
Reacting to the reports, former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary took a jibe at Dhoni by asking: “Did he pick up the phone? Because it is difficult to reach him on the phone.”
Dhoni is known for his reclusive nature, and Tiwary gave a reference of the same when asked about the former skipper taking over as a mentor of the Indian team.
“Woh phone uthaye hain na? Jahaan tak mujhe pataa hain phone pe milna bohot mushkil hai woh! Message ka reply bhi milta bohot kam hai. Bohot players apne samay main kahaa bhi hai. Pataa nahi woh reply kya karenge… woh message padhenge ki nahi padhenge (Did he pick up the phone? Because it is difficult to reach him on the phone. Replies to messages from him are also very rare, many players have said this. Will he red the message or not, we don’t know),” Tiwary replied to the query from ANI.
He added: “The first thing is whether he will accept the role or not. It’s very difficult for me to predict what impact he will have. His experience as a captain and as a player will be very useful, as the new players emerging today and becoming stars of the Indian team give him a lot of respect. The pairing of MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir will also be worth watching.”
MS Dhoni is the only skipper in the world to have won all three ICC white-ball trophies – 2007 World T20, 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy. Under his leadership, India also achieved the No. 1 ranking in the Test format.
While Dhoni retired from international cricket in 2020, he continues to feature in the Indian Premier League for Chennai Super Kings. He has captained CSK to as many as five IPL titles.