Former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni took a cheeky dig at his retirement rumours after guiding India to One Day International (ODI) series victory against Australia in Melbourne.
Earlier, during India’s tour to England, Twitterati had started a rumour that Dhoni is planning retirement after he took the match ball. On Friday, when Dhoni once again took the ball at the end of the match, he did not give cricket fans a chance to even think the other way as he handed over the ball to assistant coach Sanjay Bangar. In the video of the incident shared on Twitter by a cricket fan, Dhoni was also heard saying “take the ball or else they will say I am retiring.”
WATCH: Ye ball le lo nahi toh kahenge retirement le raha hai: #Dhoni after finishing the match on a winning note, handing over the winning ball to Sanjay Bangar. Last when he kept a winning ball, there wr speculations and reports in Media that he was retiring! #MSDian pic.twitter.com/AkBNYfdoc6
— Prashant Kumar (@scribe_prashant) January 19, 2019
After not scoring a single fifty in the last calendar year, Dhoni started 2019 on a high note by scoring three back to back fifties against Australia in the just concluded three-match ODI series.
Dhoni was also awarded Man of the Series award despite not winning a single Man of the Match award for his consistent performances throughout the series.
In the third and last ODI against Australia, Dhoni was dropped twice, when he was on 0, and when he was on 74, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday. Dhoni scored an unbeaten 87 and guided Team India to victory with the help of all-rounder Kedar Jadhav (61 not out).
Team India’s leggie Yuzvendra Chahal, who played the only match in the series, finished with a career-best of 6-42 to help dismiss Australia for 230 in 48.4 overs.