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Chief selector MSK Prasad has his say on MS Dhoni's retirement and his possible replacement
The selectors picked the Indian squad for the upcoming tour of West Indies. With MS Dhoni ruling himself out of the series, the selectors have found a possible replacement for him. Tap to read
The Indian squad for the upcoming tour of West Indies was announced today. While there were a lot of speculations regarding the composition of the team, the selectors went with the tried and tested combination. Veteran wicket-keeper batsmen MS Dhoni has made himself unavailable for the next two months as he will be serving the paramilitary forces. The chairman of selectors MSK Prasad also clearly stated that Rishabh Pant will be India's first choice keeper across formats in the coming days.
Prasad said, Dhoni knows when to retire but the future course of Indian cricket will be charted by the selectors.
"Retirement is purely individual. A legendary cricketer like Dhoni, he knows when to retire. What is the future course of action, that is in the hands of the selection committee. I don't think we need to discuss anything more on it. First of all he is not available. Second, we have already started grooming youngsters."
The chairman of selectors also wanted Pant to be groomed and given a lot of opportunities. He said, "Dhoni is unavailable for the series. He has expressed his unavailability. Having said that we had a certain roadmap and plans till the World Cup. Post World Cup, we have laid down a few more plans and we thought of giving as many opportunities as possible to Rishabh Pant and to see, he is groomed. That is our plan right now and we did discuss this with Dhoni."
He also heaped praise on Pant's batting during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 where he was flown in as a replacement for injured Shikhar Dhawan. "He played well. Especially in those conditions, he batted really well," referring to his knock against New Zealand when India lost 3 quick wickets for 5 runs.
