‘I will tell you why I knew’ – Former India coach discloses senwssational tale about MS Dhoni’s retirement
Mahendra Singh Dhoni made everyone teary-eyed when he announced his retirement from all forms of the game on August 15, 2020, with an Instagram post. But former India fielding coach R Sridhar revealed something unique about Dhoni and the leadup to his retirement from his book ‘Coaching Beyond: My days with the Indian cricket team’.
Sridhar wrote that Dhoni wanted to bid adieu to the game after the 2019 World Cup. Sridhar revealed that Dhoni decided to retire after he had a talk with Rishabh Pant. The former coach said that in the semi-final game against New Zealand, Dhoni said that he “doesn’t want to miss his last bus”.
I don’t want to miss my last bus drive- MS Dhoni
“I can now reveal that at the time of the interview with the Indian Cricket Board, 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 semi final 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.” wrote Sridhar.
“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 disclosed this incident.
And surprisingly, the game against the black caps turned out to be Dhoni’s last game in the blue jersey for India. MS Dhoni scored 51 off 72 balls with one four and one six and was run out by Martin Guptill which gave the Kiwis an 18-run win over the Men in Blue. This was the former captain’s last ODI innings for India.
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