World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli speaks about MS Dhoni's future after India's semi-final exit
What's the story?
After a heartbreaking exit in the semi-finals of the World Cup, Indian captain Virat Kohli revealed that MS Dhoni has not discussed his future plans with the team management till now. There was a lot of speculation regarding Dhoni's retirement during the tournament. However, India's World Cup-winning captain is yet to take a decision about his future.
In case you didn't know...
The two-time world champions were knocked out of the tournament by New Zealand in the semi-finals. Chasing a below-par target of 240, India fell short by 18 runs after a rare top-order failure.
This could be the last World Cup for MS Dhoni, who was the captain of the team which won the 2011 World Cup.
The heart of the matter
In today's game, MS Dhoni managed to score 50 runs off 72 balls but he could not prevent India from crashing out of the tournament. There was some speculation in the media that the former Indian captain will hang his boots after the tournament. A journalist asked Indian captain Virat Kohli about the future plans of MS Dhoni. In response, Virat Kohli said:
"No, he hasn't told us anything as of now."
Some fans and critics said that Dhoni should have played some attacking cricket to reduce pressure on Ravindra Jadeja. The Indian captain said that it is easy to judge others from outside as he believed that Dhoni played a good innings according to the situation of the game.
"Well, look, it's always, you know, a safer option to look at it from outside and say, 'Maybe this could have happened' but I think today he was batting with Jadeja and there was only Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) to follow after. So he had to hold one end together in my opinion," Kohli said.
Virat Kohli pointed out that India really needed a partnership at that stage. He also backed the approach of MS Dhoni saying that India needed someone to support Jadeja who looked in great knick.
"Jadeja was playing so well and you needed a solid partnership and to get a 100-run partnership from that situation, I think it had to be the right balance of one guy holding an end (Dhoni) and Jadeja playing the way he did. His knock was outstanding," the skipper justified Dhoni's approach
What' next?
MS Dhoni has represented India in four World Cups and might well have played his last World Cup for India. We will have to wait for a few days to see how things pan out. It would be interesting to see if Dhoni features in the series against West Indies.
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