India’s captain Rohit Sharma opened up on the possibility of convincing the legendary MS Dhoni for the 2024 T20 World Cup as the mega event is nearing and teams are finalising their squads to have a shot at the elusive title.
Dhoni, 42, retired from international cricket in 2020 and has been playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) since then. He also guided his franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to a title in 2021 and 2023 and is still going strong in this year’s edition.
Despite not being able to bat for a longer period, the 42-year-old is proving his worth in the little time he gets to bat as in CSK’s most recent outing against Mumbai Indians, he hit 20 runs on just 4 balls which turned out to be the difference between the two sides.
With the World Cup closing in, India is still finding out their options for the wicketkeeping role with the likes of KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant and others in contention as the Blues have not had a regular wicketkeeper batter since Dhoni called time on his international career.
In a recent interview, Sharma ventured the possibility of convincing Karthik and Dhoni for the upcoming World Cup saying that the former could be easily convinced than the latter.
"I was quite impressed, especially with Dinesh Karthik. The way he batted a couple of nights back (vs SRH). Dhoni as well. He came to play four balls against us and made a huge impact with those 20 runs. Eventually, it proved to be the difference in the end," Rohit said on the Club Prairie Fire podcast.
The 36-year-old added that Dhoni has started playing golf now so he is unlikely to play for India in the World Cup.
"It'll be hard to convince MS Dhoni for the World Cup. He is sick and tired. He is coming to the US. He is into golf now so he'll be playing that in the US. DK will be easier to convince," he added.