Michael Hussey, a former teammate of MS Dhoni at the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), recently spoke his mind on the speculations surrounding the former India captain’s future.
Hussey feels that MSD has the potential to play for another ten years. Dhoni last played in the 2019 World Cup, and it’s nearly a year since he played competitive cricket. The Ranchi-born cricketer was all set to make a comeback in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, which had to be postponed indefinitely due to the ungodly COVID-19 virus.
“He [Dhoni] has been an incredible person and player for CSK for so long, and India for that matter, and we hope he keeps playing for another ten years, but I’m not sure we’re going to be able to see that so hopefully he can play for as long as he can,” said Hussey, who is now a batting consultant with CSK.
Hussey also praised Virat Kohli, the current Indian skipper, for his desire to learn from Dhoni and form a robust Indian unit.
“I think you got to give a lot of kudos to Virat Kohli, having someone like MS Dhoni still in the team who’s been, arguably, India’s most successful captain. Sometimes some people would find that threatening to still have that person in the team,” the Australian veteran stated.
“But that’s where you need to tip your hat to Virat and so you know he’s obviously got the personality to say ‘no, no I would like this guy around. I can learn from this guy, and he’s going to help me get down the better skipper and obviously have a better team’,” he added.
On India’s forthcoming tour of Australia:
During the chat show on Sony Ten’s Pit Stop, Hussey also spoke about this year’s India’s tour of Australia. While Kohli and his brigade had famously beaten the Aussies Down Under on their last visit, Hussey isn’t of the opinion that things would be as easy for the touring side this time around.
“Obviously, bringing back Smith and Warner into the team is huge, but the guys that were exposed and perhaps probably weren’t quite ready at the time from two years ago, have now managed to get a number of Test matches under their belt… India are going to be up for a stiff challenge in Australia this summer,” Mr Cricket said.