Amid the ever growing speculations over India's iconic cricketer MS Dhoni's retirement doing the rounds in the cricket circles, the wicket-keeper batsman's manager and childhood friend Mihir Diwakar quashed all such rumors saying that retirement is the last thing on Dhoni's mind and the veteran campaigner is determined to play the Indian Premier League.

Talking to PTI on Tuesday, Diwakar said, "Being friends, we don't talk about his cricket. But looking at him, he's not all thinking about retirement.

"He is very determined to play the IPL. He has worked really hard for this. If you remember he was there in Chennai one month in advance before everything was shut down," he pointed out.

Dhoni who tuned 39 on Wednesday, last donned the Indian jersey in the 2019 ICC World Cup semifinal exit against New Zealand, After India's tragic ouster from the tournament, Dhoni took a self imposed break from the game and made himself available unavailable for selection in the limited-overs series that Virat and Co played, home or away in the later half of 2019. Although, Dhoni's future in the Indian team was a burning topic and always hogged the headlines before every team selection for an international engagement.

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With the future around the World Cup winning skipper continuing to be under dark cloud, the 2020 IPL was been seen by many as the platform the CSK stalwart might use to stake a claim back into the national team.

Dhoni looked in fairly good form with the willow during his batting sessions at the CSK training camp in Chennai. However the outbreak of the Covid pandemic led to the indefinitely postponement of the IPL and also served as a major setback to Dhoni's comeback plans.

Earlier, India head coach Ravi Shastri has stated that Dhoni would be in contention for the T20 World Cup later this year if he has a good IPL campaign.