There might be a lot of speculations regarding his international retirement, but there is no strong indication which suggests that MS Dhoni’s days as an India cricketer will get over in the immediate future.

Amidst rumours, a report published in TOI claims that chief selector MSK Prasad had a “discussion” with Dhoni and clearly told him that “he wasn’t in the scheme of things any more, and the selectors now planned to go ahead with youngsters”.

“He (Dhoni) has told Prasad that he’s not retiring for now. However, he has been told that he’s not in the scheme of things. We’re going ahead with the youngsters. He told us to go ahead with our plans. That’s why in the presser, Prasad said that we’re looking ahead now. Now, it’s up to him if he wants to retire today, tomorrow, or whenever he wants to,” a reliable source told TOI on Sunday (July 21).

This basically suggests that Dhoni isn’t willing to throw in the towel yet. For now, he will miss the tour of the West Indies as he has taken a two-month sabbatical from the game to serve his paramilitary regiment.

On Sunday (July 21), Prasad announced Team India’s multiple squads for the upcoming West Indies tour and clarified that Dhoni was not available for selection in the limited-overs leg of the trip. He also mentioned that the selectors are now looking to provide more opportunities across all formats to young Rishabh Pant.

“Retirement is purely an individual (decision). A legendary cricketer like Dhoni knows when to retire. The future course of action is in the hands of the selection committee. I don’t think we need to discuss anything more on it. First of all, he is not available. Second, we have already started grooming youngsters,” Prasad told reporters in Mumbai.

“Having said that, we had certain road maps till the World Cup. Subsequently, post the World Cup, we have laid down few more plans. We thought of giving as many opportunities to Pant to see that he is groomed. That’s our plan right now,” he added.