India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal sees MS Dhoni's retirement as a big shock for him. He was not expecting the 39-year-old to quit international cricket before T20 World Cup and believes the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in it.

Dhoni was preparing for the comeback ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in February. But COVID-19 pushed the IPL 2020 dates to September 19 from March 29 and it played a spoilsport. Even T20 World Cup 2020 got postponed to 2022 and this is when Dhoni's dream to feature in Indian jersey for one last time ended.

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“Dhoni’s retirement was very shocking news. I think corona also played a role in this decision, otherwise, Dhoni would have played T20 World Cup,” Chahal said in News18 India‘s special program Chaupal.

Chahal has no doubt Dhoni still has everything that takes to play international cricket. “I still want him to play,” he said.

The Haryana cricketer also acknowledged the role Dhoni played in his career to make him a better bowler. Dhoni used to guide him and Kuldeep Yadav from behind the stumps.

“Because of him Kuldeep Yadav and I succeeded. We used to get a lot of help from him from behind the wicket. If Dhoni was there, 50 percent of my work was already done. Dhoni knew how the pitch was behaving. Before the first ball, we knew what the pitch was like because of him. Otherwise, when Dhoni was not there, we would take two overs to understand the pitch,” he added.

Someone like Dhoni makes the task easy and his assistance was a huge relief for Chahal. 

“In the match, since Virat (Kohli) and Rohit (Sharma) were on the boundary, then Dhoni was the nearest senior, he would help us always. Dhoni also helped Kuldeep and me a lot during the tour of South Africa", he admitted.

Chahal also commented on Dhoni's farewell match. “This decision will be taken by the BCCI. Also, what Dhoni wants needs to be considered.”

(WITH NEWS 18 INPUTS)