Dhoni dropped after Kohli-Rohit's consent

Indian skipper Virat Kohli and limited overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma were very much involved in the process of axing Dhoni and always kept in the loop

The MSK Prasad-led national section committee was once again in the spotlight when they announced the Indian T20 squads for the West Indies and Australia series without including former captain MS Dhoni. They, however, were not the only ones behind this decision as it was taken with the consent of Indian skipper Virat Kohli and limited overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma.

The selectors were bombarded with questions after dropping but a senior BCCI official has now revealed that it was not a sudden decision and considerable discussions took place before arriving at this conclusion.

He further added that both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were very much involved in the process and always kept in the loop. "Obviously, the selectors and team management had a good deliberation on this issue. Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were present at the selection committee meeting. You think selectors could have gone ahead without their approval?" a senior BCCI official told PTI.

In the year 2018, Dhoni played seven T20 Internationals with an unbeaten 52 off 28 balls against South Africa being the highlight.

If that inning is taken out, Dhoni has scored 71 runs off 51 balls in the remaining six matches that he has played.

It's no secret that Dhoni is the first choice wicketkeeper for the England World Cup but a lot will depend on how he performs in the last three ODIs against West Indies.

More so because he will again be out of match practice for the next two months till India play their next lot of ODIs from January to March.
But as of now Dhoni’s spot in ODIs seems under no threat, it’s only his T20 career that seems to be going in the wrong direction. It is also learnt that the decision to look beyond Dhoni in T20s was taken after the former captain talked about bidding adieu to international cricket after the 2019 ODI World Cup.

"It's a given that Dhoni won't be around when next ICC World T20 happens in Australia in 2020. So, there wasn't any point continuing with him if he will not play World T20," the official added.

The chairman of selectors MSK Prasad spoke about looking at a second choice keeper and the flamboyant Rishabh Pant has already earned the vote of confidence from the team management.

That precisely is the reason why selectors could risk dropping Dhoni from the shortest format.