Dhoni is currently not a part of the Indian squad for the three-match series against South Africa.
India and South Africa set to take on each other in the first T20I of the three-match series, skipper Virat Kohli hailed wicket-keeper batsman, MS Dhoni, saying 'he always thinks about Indian cricket and there is no replacement for experience'.
Dhoni is currently not a part of the Indian squad for the three-match series against South Africa. The 38-year-old received a lot of criticism during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 for batting with a slow strike-rate.
"Experience is always going to matter whether you like it or not. Many players have proven in the past that age is just a number and even Dhoni has done that a lot in his career. One thing great about him is that he thinks for Indian cricket."
"When to stop playing cricket, is completely an individual decision. No one should give opinions regarding the matter," Kohli told reporters.
Earlier in the week, Virat had posted a picture with Dhoni on his social media, cherishing India's 2016 T20I World Cup match against Australia and wrote that Dhoni made him run like crazy in the match.
Netizens started speculating that Dhoni was going to announce his retirement and will be holding a press conference at 7 pm on that day.
But, Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) Chief Selector MSK Prasad confirmed that they have no updates on MS Dhoni's retirement and the news was completely incorrect. Later on, MSD's wife Sakshi also posted a tweet saying "It's called rumours" and brought an end to all the speculations.
"I did not have anything on my mind, I was just sitting at my home and I just uploaded the picture. It became news, it is a lesson for me about what I think about myself, the world does not necessarily see it that way. That game is very special, I have not openly talked about it so that is why I uploaded the picture but people took it otherwise," Kohli said.
The Delhi and District Cricket Association(DDCA) named a pavilion after Virat at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on September 12. In a grand ceremony, the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium was re-named after late finance minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
"Initially it was hard to believe. It is a very gracious gesture. You do not think about that as a cricketer, but for someone to give you that honour, it feels special," Kohli stated.
Talking about India's clash against South Africa, the 30-year-old claimed that the board wanted to give opportunities to players who have been consistently performing well in the domestic level for the past two to three years.
"We wanted to give opportunities to players who have done well for the past two years in the domestic circuit and T20 cricket in the IPL. It is about finding the best possible balance we can for the side and not necessarily stick to one particular type of balance. If other teams can bat till number nine, so why cannot we? Whatever decisions are made, they are made looking at the future," Kohli added.
"The first two to three T20I series will help us assess every situation. Definitely the roadmap for T20 World Cup in 2020 is on our mind. It is an exciting prospect looking at the new bunch of guys in our lineup," he further said.
India's squad for three T20Is includes Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, and Navdeep Saini.
Team India will be taking on the Proteas in three-match T20I series and three-match Test series.
The first T20 international will be played tomorrow at Dharamshala.
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