MS Dhoni will not be a part of India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Sunil Gavaskar

Bengaluru, March 20: The future of MS Dhoni has come under a lot of speculation since he took a sabbatical from top-flight cricket after India's semi-final exit from the ICC World Cup 2019.

Now, with uncertainty mounting over the IPL 2020, Dhoni might not have too many platforms to prove his fitness and match readiness ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Australia in October.

He had recently returned to action through the net session of Chennai Super Kings and showed some touch in practice games. But Chennai and other IPL teams cancelled their net sessions till further notice after the Coronavirus outbreak, along the way robbing Dhoni some game time after a long while.

In that context, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar said Dhoni might not make it to India's squad for the T20 World Cup and that the Jharkhand man might even walk away silently.

"I would certainly like to see Dhoni in India's World Cup squad but it's highly unlikely to happen. The team has moved on. Dhoni is not someone to make big announcements so I reckon he would silently retire from the game," Gavaskar told Dainik Jagran.

Even coach Ravi Shastri had said Dhoni might retire from the 50-over format and he had already retired from Test cricket mid-way through India's Test series against Australia in 2014-15.

Dhoni, in current situation, will have to vie with three wicketkeepers if he wants to make a comeback. KL Rahul has been doing the wicketkeeper's duty in ODIs since the ODI series against Australia at home and he has had a good degree of success in the dual role.

Rishabh Pant did the duty behind the stumps in ODIs and in Test cricket in the recent series against New Zealand and the team management continues to back him. Wriddhiman Saha too did a commendable job in the home series against South Africa and Bangladesh, though he is primarily a 'keeper in traditional format.