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Retirement Rumours Surround MS Dhoni

Go back to August of 2020 and we were given the news that Indian cricket captain and all-time favourite of the game was retiring from international cricket.

It was a blow to the Indian team, and much has been said about the timing of his retirement announcement. The good news from that announcement was that Dhoni felt he had more to give and would continue to play T20 cricket.

Fast forward to the IPL of 2020, played later this year due to the pandemic, and rumours have surfaced that he may be ready to hang his pads up overall. This all comes on the back of a very disappointing tournament for Chennai Super Kings, the team that Dhoni captains.

The Super Kings have failed to reach the playoffs of the IPL, for the time since the tournament was introduced back in 2008. Knowing Dhoni, he will take this failure personally, and won't have enjoyed what we have seen happen over in the UAE in recent weeks.

There have even been fans calling for Dhoni to be removed from the Super Kings team, such is the feeling surrounding their disappointing run this season. It is highly unlikely that will happen, but Dhoni will be hearing these calls, and if he is thinking about retirement, these could help him make his decision.

There is certainly a lot of focus and attention on this right now, as it involves the biggest T20 cricket league in the world, the IPL. There are many who participate in online cricket betting in India, these will especially be interested in what happens with Dhoni and the Super Kings franchise as a whole.

We usually see the IPL run each year, and when something major happens like this, teams have 12 months to work out what to do and what the future holds. If the IPL returns to its regular position in the calendar then that would leave the Super Kings just six months before the games begin in 2021.

That is not much time to potentially replace the most important man in your franchise, someone who has been at the heart of everything you have done as a franchise since your inception. Given the circumstances, and potential lack of other cricket taking place between now and the next edition of the IPL, it may be wise for Dhoni to ride out the criticism that he is currently facing and come back next season to put things right.

It would be nice to see that happen, for the simple reason that we dont want to see Dhoni bow out under the current circumstances. He is a top class player, who has played at the highest level for many years both for club and country. This should end well for him, a retirement now, bowing out after a poor tournament that was held away from India and without fans, would be wrong. Let's hope that MS Dhoni sees this and comes back for at least one more year.