“Wanted to give Virat time in building his own team”- MS Dhoni reveals the reason behind relinquishing captaincy

Former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on Thursday, revealed the reason for his stepping down from the helm of affairs of the Indian team, saying that he wanted the new captain to build a team of his own for the 2019 World Cup, to be held in England.

Stressing that he quit the leadership role at the” right time”, Dhoni, while interacting with reporters at an event in Ranchi said that he wanted Virat Kohli to have time to build his own team.

“I resigned from captaincy because I wanted the new captain to get enough time for preparing a team before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019,” said Dhoni, as quoted by Deccan Chronicle.

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“Selecting a strong team without giving the new captain appropriate time isn’t possible. I believe that I left the captaincy at the right time,” added the wicket-keeper batsman.

The 36-year old further opined that the lack of practice matches before the series was one of the reasons behind the failure of the batting unit as a whole.

“The Indian team missed out on playing practices matches before the series, which is why the batsmen are finding it difficult to adjust,” Dhoni said.

“This is a part of the game. We shouldn’t forget that India is currently No. 1 in the rankings,” he added.

It was under Dhoni’s leadership that the Indian team tasted success in the inaugural World T20 in South Africa. Under Dhoni, India also won the World Cup 2011 besides winning the Champions Trophy in 2013. He also led the Test team to the number one rank in the ICC rankings.

He resigned from Test captaincy in 2014 before the relinquishing the role of the skipper for India in limited overs format in the year 2017.

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