Former India opener Aakash Chopra has revealed that fans of former India captain MS Dhoni abused him so much that he had to stay away from his social media handles for a few days.
The former Delhi batsman had recently named his Indian squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia. The cricketer-turned-commentator had took a bold step of leaving out the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni from the squad. Aakash named two wicketkeeper-batsman in KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant in his 14-member squad.
“I had to close social media for few days. People abused me so much, it kept on coming, they abused the kids as well. I said please pardon me guys, what happened has happened,” Aakash Chopra told while talking to former pacer Ajit Agarkar.
During the course of the interview, Aakash Chopra asked Ajit Agarkar’s view on the future of MS Dhoni. Unlike many Indian cricket experts Agarkar was on point with his views. The Mumbai-born cricketers said people discuss about MS Dhoni’s future but there was no point talking about it as he hasn’t played any form of cricket for almost a year now.
Agarkar also reckoned that there must have been a communication between MS Dhoni and the selectors. The 42-year-old said fans of Dhoni want him to play again but for that he will have to resume cricket.
“I don’t know actually. Retiring or not retiring is MS Dhoni’s call. To select or to not select is selectors’ call, if he fits in their plan. I don’t know, for the player who hasn’t played for a year, for me it will be difficult. Don’t know about the communication between MS Dhoni and team management or with the selectors.”
“We don’t know about that. It will be difficult talking about an individual player but I will like to see the player playing cricket. If someone is not playing cricket then there is no point giving opinion on them or discussing about. I know people discuss about Dhoni because he has not retired and he has not playing also.”
“It’s obvious because of his achievements and fan following in India. Fans want him to play again but there is no point of discussion till the time he doesn’t play cricket. We can discuss about his selection after he starts playing, if he has that in him and if he fits in the future plans of team. Things have come to standstill because of coronavirus pandemic but I am sure that there would have been a communication between the management and Dhoni. He is a big player,” Ajit Agarkar concluded.
MS Dhoni was gearing for his return to professional cricket with IPL but the coronavirus pandemic derailed that. Many think that MS Dhoni would never play for India again but there is still a confirmation to come from Dhoni.
IPL has also not been called off yet, and that leaves that ray of hope for ardent MS Dhoni fans. For the time being Dhoni is spending time with his family amid the coronavirus lockdown and staying away from any retirement speculations.
