'MS Dhoni made himself unavailable for selection against SA', confirms MSK Prasad

Mumbai: Former skipper MS Dhoni was not included in the 15-member T20 squad for the upcoming series against South Africa.

India's Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad has now confirmed that Dhoni has expressed his unavailability for the three T20 matches against South Africa, as reported by India Today.

"Yes he was unavailable for selection," he said.

Many people believed that Dhoni would announce his retirement after the 2019 ICC World Cup, but he didn’t hint anything after India were knocked out by New Zealand in the semi-finals. Even the BCCI haven’t clarified anything on the 38-year-old's future.

Dhoni has been away from cricket for the past one and a half month; spending a fifteen-day stint with Indian territorial Army in Kashmir. Pant, who scored 42 ball 65 in the last T20 against Windies has been given another opportunity to emerge as Team India's first-choice wicket-keeper.

Other notable omissions from the T20 squad are spin twins - Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal who were not picked in the T20 squad against West Indies as well.

Regarding the selection of Kuldeep and Chahal for the ODI series against South Africa, Prasad said, "We are just trying to build a pool of spinners. The likes of Rahul Chahar, Krunal Pandya and Washington Sundar had done well in the last series and they deserve another go."