Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly stated that Mahendra Singh Dhoni needs to evaluate himself and decide whether he can win matches for the Indian cricket team.
The 47-year-old former cricketer mentioned that Dhoni has come to that stage in his career where he has to decide whether he can live up to the standards set by him or not, as quoted by India Today.
Ganguly added that players like Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli will always have expectations of winning matches riding on them but the player will definitely know whether he has the match-winning ability intact or not.
"He is at that stage of his career where he has to evaluate where he stands. He has to decide if he can win matches for India... if he can continue to contribute like Dhoni, not someone else," Ganguly told India Today.
"Because with players like Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, till they play, there will be expectations that they will win matches. I think Dhoni has to make this decision. Only a player knows how much fuel is left in the tank and how much of his match-winning ability is intact," he added.
The former Indian skipper, who took India to the final of ICC 2003 World Cup held in South Africa, said that Indian cricket will have to get used to the fact that the 38-year-old cricket will not play forever but the decision has to be taken by the World Cup-winning captain himself.
"Indian cricket will have to get used to the fact that MS Dhoni won't be playing forever and he won't be around for too long. But I believe this decision has to be taken by Dhoni himself," the former cricketer told India Today.
MS Dhoni, during his stint as the skipper of the Indian team, had phased out ageing players like Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Fans of both the players initially criticised MSD's decision as they believed the former players could have contributed more to the limited-overs format of the game.
But, Dhoni insisted that Team India need young players who run fast and be good at fielding for success in future. The results were evident and India won almost every international trophy in the coming years.
Now the time has come for the 38-year-old cricketer who has not lived up to the expectations riding on him in the recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. The former Indian captain was criticised by cricket fans from all over the world for his slow batting rate.
After the World Cup, there were speculations that Dhoni was retiring but the wicket-keeper batsman took a sabbatical and went to serve the Indian Army for two months.
Does Ganguly want Dhoni to retire is the big question. The 47-year-old may also want the World Cup-winning captain to be phased out like the way he or Dravid were dealt with for the benefit of Indian cricket.
The former left-handed batting all-rounder mentioned that big players like Diego Maradona, Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Don Bradman had to retire as that is the way it works. So this situation will come for Dhoni as well in the coming days.
"Every big player has to hang up his shoes. That's sport. Look in football, Maradona had to quit. There hasn't been a bigger player than him. Tendulkar, Lara, Bradman... everyone had to quit. This is the way the system has been and will be. So this scenario will come for MS as well," Ganguly said.
As of now, India's chief selector MSK Prasad had mentioned that Dhoni will be a part of the Indian team as the second wicket-keeper. The former Indian captain will help in the process of grooming youngster Rishabh Pant to fill in his boots.
