MS Dhoni reveals the reason behind stepping down from captaincy

What’s the story?

One of the greatest Limited-overs captains in the history of Indian cricket, MS Dhoni relinquished the ODI captaincy in January 2017 to make way for the heir apparent and India’s Test captain Virat Kohli.

Dhoni decision to relinquish the leadership duties sent the fans in a tizzy and hundreds of people gathered in Dhoni’s last game as skipper; England’s warm-up match prior to the ODI series. This was not the first time that Dhoni had shocked the fans; he’d walked away from Test cricket in a similar fashion after the Melbourne in 2014.

As per the reports in SpotsRush, Dhoni recently took part in a motivational programme with the CISF at Ranchi’s Birsa Airport where the former World Cup-winning captain opened up about

 

“I resigned from captaincy because I wanted the new captain (Virat Kohli) to get enough time for preparing a team before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019,” said MS according to the reports in SportsRush. 

“Selecting a strong team without giving the new captain (Virat Kohli) appropriate time isn’t possible. I believe that I left the captaincy at the right time

Every captain wants to have his set of chosen players in the team which is why Dhoni stressed upon giving the new captain an adequate amount of time. More so, Dhoni has had the same traits where he chose his set of players and made them competitive at the global level.” , the veteran Indian-wicket-keeper concluded.

The Indian wicketkeeper also shared his views about India’s recent loss in England and opined that lack of warm-up matches leading into the Test series was a major reason in Indian batsmen’s abysmal show.

Also Read:- Five memorable Indo-Pak matches

What’s next?

After a difficult ODI series in England, MS Dhoni will be looking to shrug off his indifferent form as the Indian prepares to defend its Asia Cup title in the UAE.

The Asia Cup gets underway with Sri Lanka taking on Bangladesh in the tournament opener. India will kickstart their campaign against Hong Kong before locking heads with arch-rivals Pakistan on the very next day- September 19th.