Updated April 18th, 2020 at 17:02 IST

Mohammad Azharuddin rules out MS Dhoni's India return after IPL 2020 postponement

Former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin talked about the possibilities of MS Dhoni's return to Team India. Dhoni has not played any cricket since July 2019.

Reported by: Mrigank Pandey
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Many cricket experts had predicted that Indian fans would come to know about MS Dhoni's Team India future after the IPL 2020. MS Dhoni took a break from cricket after India's loss to New Zealand at the 2019 ICC World Cup and the former captain was supposed to return to the game by leading CSK in the IPL 2020. However, the future of IPL 2020 currently remains uncertain due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

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Mohammad Azharuddin doubts MS Dhoni's return to national team in T20 World Cup

The T20 World Cup was supposed to begin on October 18 before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the game. Now that the ICC decides the future of the tournament, a lot is up to speculation. Former Team India captain Mohammad Azharuddin recently spoke about MS Dhoni's return to Team India and participation in the T20 World Cup, as reported by ANI. Mohammad Azharuddin said that the decision to return to the game is completely upto MS Dhoni and no one else will be able to decide it for him. 

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Mohammad Azharuddin also predicted that even if MS Dhoni decides to come back and play for India, he will have to go through a gruelling selection process, despite his stature. "The selectors will look at the performance because playing after a long gap is not that easy, match practice is really important," Mohammad Azharuddin was quoted as saying to the news agency. Dhoni's form in the IPL 2020 was being expected to predict his presence in the T20 World Cup. 

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MS Dhoni had even made his way to the Chepauk to practice for the IPL 2020 but due to the coronavirus outbreak, the BCCI had the IPL postponed to April 15 from March 29. Since the situation in the country did not improve, the BCCI further had the IPL postponed until further notice. The CSK team disbanded its training camp after the IPL got postponed.

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Published April 18th, 2020 at 17:01 IST