A senior BCCI official has said that the decision to keep MS Dhoni out of the squads for home T20I series against West Indies and the crucial away assignment against Australia was taken only after consultation with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
A senior BCCI official privy to selection policy told PTI, “Obviously, the selectors and team management had a good deliberation on this issue. Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were present at the selection committee meeting. You think selectors could have gone ahead without their approval?”
“It’s a given that Dhoni won’t be around when next ICC World T20 happens in Australia in 2020. So, there wasn’t any point continuing with him if he will not play World T20,” the official said.
However, after the teams were announced, chief selector MSK Prasad had said that it was not the end of MS Dhoni’s T20 career.
“He [Dhoni] is not going to play the six T20Is [West Indies and Australia] because we are looking at the second keeper’s slot. So I think we will retain Rishabh [Pant] and Dinesh Karthik. So they will be getting a chance to keep and bat. It is not the end of Dhoni in T20Is,” he said.
