Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Thursday dropped from the BCCI's list of centrally contracted players, raising fresh doubts on the future of the former India captain who has not played since the World Cup semi-final loss to New Zealand last year.
The BCCI announced the central contracts for the period of October 2019 to September 2020. Dhoni was in the A category, which fetches a player Rs 5 crore, until last year.
Present skipper Virat Kohli, his deputy Rohit Sharma and top pacer Jasprit Bumrah were retained in the highest A+ bracket of Rs 7 crore.
Team India head coach Ravi Shastri had on January 10 revealed in an interview that Dhoni may “soon end his ODI career.”
“I have had a conversation with MS and that is between us. He has finished his Test career, he may soon end his ODI career... In all probability, he will finish one-day cricket,” Shastri told CNN News18.
“People must respect that he’s played non-stop in all formats of the game for a while. At his age, probably the only format he’ll want to play is T20 cricket which means he’ll have to start playing again, get back into the groove because he’s going to play in the IPL and see how his body reacts,” Shastri added.
Dhoni’s last outing in India colours was during the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in July 2019 where he was run out following a half-century.
