India's former fielding coach, R Sridhar, made a bombshell revelation about MS Dhoni’s retirement. Sridhar revealed in his book that he already knew that Dhoni had made up his mind to retire from international cricket in the 2019 World Cup during the semi-final against New Zealand.
It proved to be the final match MS Dhoni played in Indian colors as he officially announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020.
Sharing more details, Sridhar revealed a conversation between Dhoni and Rishabh Pant that took place during the reserve day of India's 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand.
The former fielding coach revealed that he accidentally got to know that MS Dhoni had decided to retire from international cricket after the 2019 World Cup itself, but he didn’t reveal it to anyone, even to his wife, out of sheer respect for Dhoni.
Sridhar wrote in his book, ‘Coaching Beyond- My days with the Indian cricket team’: “I can now reveal that at the time of the interview to the BCCI, which I attended from Antigua, I was reasonably certain that for all practical purposes, MS had played his last match for the country. He hadn't announced it, of course, but I will tell you why I knew.”
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He further wrote in his book, “On the morning of the reserve day in our World Cup semifinal against New Zealand in Manchester, I was the first person at the breakfast hall. I was nursing my coffee when MS and Rishabh walked in, picked up their stuff, and joined me at my table.
New Zealand had only a couple of overs to bat out and we'd start our innings thereafter, so the match would end reasonably early. Rishabh told MS in Hindi, 'Bhaiyya, some of the guys are planning to leave for London today itself privately. Would you be interested?' MS replied, 'No, Rishabh, I don't want to miss my last bus drive with the team.'”
Sridhar added, “I didn't say a word to anyone about this conversation out of sheer respect for the man. He had taken me into confidence. I couldn't shoot my mouth off. So, I didn't utter a word not to Ravi, not to Arun, not even to my wife.”
MS Dhoni made a half-century in the semi-final and when he got run out, the chances of India's win also ended as New Zealand won the match by 18 runs and qualified for the final, where they lost to England at Lord's.
Dhoni will be seen in action for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2023.
