MS Dhoni to comeback? Former Indian captain may play for Asia XI

Bengaluru, November 26: MS Dhoni's international future is the hotly discussed topic in Indian cricketing circle now. The former Indian captain is on a sabbatical from top-flight cricket ever since India's semi-final exit from the ICC World Cup 2019.

After that India have played white ball series against West Indies, South Africa and Bangladesh but Dhoni, who is with Territorial Army, skipped all of them to serve his army regiment. Dhoni is also not playing in the upcoming limited over series against the West Indies next month.

But right now, Dhoni could be coming back to international cricket in March through two T20Is for Asian XI against the Rest of the World XI and the matches have already been granted international status by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is playing host to the matches and they have requested the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCC) to allow India's top seven cricketers to play in the matches. Besides Dhoni, the BCB has asked BCCI to release Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

"Bangladesh is scheduled to host two T20 Internationals between Asia XI and Rest of the World. We are in touch with BCCI and other cricket boards of the Asian region to allow their players to be part of these two games," BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury was quoted as saying by India Today.

Though there is no word on Dhoni's international return yet, he is certain to lead Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2020 and has been retained by the franchise. BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly too recently said that he hasn't had time to talk to Dhoni or selectors about the wicketkeeper batsman's future.

Ganguly has been busy with organising India's first-ever Day-Night Test against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, and India won the match by an innings and 46 runs to wrap the series 2-0.