Mahendra Singh Dhoni is regarded as the greatest captain in the history of cricket. The former wicketkeeper-batsman was the first player to win all ICC trophies as captain. They won the T20 World Cup in 2007, the ODI World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy two years later. He also won the ICC’s award-winning mace twice during his captaincy in Tests, the longest format of the game.

Dhoni had announced his international retirement in 2020. Dhoni played his last match for the Indian team in the 2019 World Cup. However, regarding Dhoni’s retirement, India’s former fielding coach R Sridhar has made a big disclosure about how Dhoni had already indicated about his retirement. He mentioned playing his last match for India in a conversation with Rishabh Pant. After this, Pant became the successor of Dhoni in the role of wicketkeeping.

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Dhoni played his last match in the World Cup

Sridhar revealed the conversation between the two wicketkeepers during the reserve day of India’s World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Sridhar said- I can now disclose that Dhoni had played his last match in the World Cup.

Of course, he didn’t announce it, but I’ll tell you why I knew about it. On the morning of reserve day at our World Cup semi-final match against New Zealand in Manchester, I was the first person to arrive at the breakfast hall. I was sipping my coffee when MS and Rishabh walked in. He picked up his luggage and joined me at the table. Sridhar wrote sharing the story in his book ‘Coaching Beyond – My Days with the Indian Cricket Team’.

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MS replied- No, Rishabh, I don’t want to miss my last bus drive with the team

Sridhar wrote- New Zealand had only a few overs to bat and we were about to start our innings after that. That’s why the match was going to end very quickly. Rishabh told MS in Hindi- Brother, some people are planning to go to London today itself. will you go too MS replied- No, Rishabh, I don’t want to miss my last bus drive with the team.

Sridhar further said that he never overheard the conversation to anyone out of respect for Dhoni. I didn’t say a word to anyone about this conversation out of respect for Dhoni. He took me into confidence. I couldn’t open my mouth. So, I didn’t say a word to Ravi Shastri, not even to Arun, not even to my wife.

According to Sridhar, he and Pant knew about Dhoni’s retirement. India lost the semi-final of the World Cup by 18 runs, with Dhoni’s run out being the defining moment of the game. The former India skipper had scored a 72-ball 50 but was run out when he needed 24 more runs to win in nine balls.