Former fielding coach R Sridhar reveals Dhoni-Pant dialog on MSD retirement throughout 2019 World Cup

Former India fielding coach R Sridhar revealed that MS Dhoni had already made up his thoughts about his worldwide retirement through the World Cup 2019. Sridhar revealed a dialog between Dhoni and Rishabh Pant that happened through the reserve day of India’s World Cup semi-final towards New Zealand.

Sridhar, who served as workforce India’s fielding coach from 2014 to 2021, wrote in his e-book, ‘Coaching Beyond- My days with the Indian cricket workforce, “I can now reveal that at the time of the interview with 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. 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.”

MS Dhoni introduced his retirement from worldwide cricket on August 15, 2020, after taking part in 90 Tests, 350 one-day internationals, and 98 Twenty20s for India.

Sridhar, a left-arm spinner who performed for Hyderabad within the late Nineties, additionally wrote, “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.”

Incidentally, in his final match in nationwide colors, Dhoni was as soon as once more tragically run out throughout India’s World Cup sem-final sport towards eventual runners-up New Zealand in 2019. In the tense encounter at Manchester, India was in a spot of trouble at 92/6 chasing 240 however Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni restored the steadiness with a 117-run partnership for the eighth wickets. Towards the tip, as the sport went right down to the wire, all hopes have been on Dhoni’s shoulders. But destiny had a merciless twist in retailer. After tucking a ball in direction of the leg-side, Dhoni set off for a fast double to retain the strike, however Martin Guptill’s second of magic discovered the previous Indian skipper in need of his floor to sprint any hopes of an Indian win.