BENGALURU: After 25 days of Vijay Hazare Trophy action, Saturday morning was a bit different for the net bowlers. They were excited about a chance to bowl to MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. While the latter arrived for the quarterfinals, the former did not.
Announcing the squad for the first two ODIs against the West Indies on Thursday, chief selector MSK Prasad had said Dhoni would join the Jharkhand team for the Hazare knockout phase. On Saturday, the Jharkhand team management confirmed he has decided not to.
This is not the first time of late that the selection committee and players have been found to be thinking differently. In different incidents, Murali Vijay and Karun Nair said there had been no communication between them and selectors before they were dropped. Not quite the same, but Dhoni’s case is another example.
“He is a asset to the team and players look up to him. MS understands what each player needs and he talks to them about problems,” Jharkhand coach Rajeev Kumar said. “But he didn’t want to join as it would mean dropping a player. He didn’t want to tinker with the combination, especially when the team is doing well. He said he would try to come for a day to support the team.”
It’s to be seen how selectors react. He has not been in great form recently and it’s possible that the selectors wanted to see how he is doing. It’s up to the BCCI also to decide whether this amounts to ignoring the selection committee’s call.