'I would like to see him but..': This is why Sunil Gavaskar thinks MS Dhoni won't be part of India's T20 World Cup squad

Former Team India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his thoughts on MS Dhoni's possible return into India's T20 World Cup squad for later this year.

Ever since the announcement of central contracts for Team India by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been made, the one thing everyone noticed was the exclusion of Dhoni.

With questions over the wicketkeeper-batsman's retirement doing the rounds, the decision to exclude him just gave rise to more speculations.

Since India's semi-final exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 against New Zealand in August last year, MSD made himself unavailable for selection. During his break from cricket, the 38-year-old also served for the Indian Army too.

Gavaskar has now claimed that as much as he would like to see MSD being part of India's World Cup squad, however, he feels like Dhoni won't be boarding the flight for Australia with the rest of the Men In Blue.

“I would certainly like to see Dhoni in India’s World Cup squad but it’s highly unlikely to happen. The team has moved on. Dhoni is not someone to make big announcements so I reckon he would silently retire from the game,” Gavaskar was quoted as saying by Dainik Jagran.

Earlier this month, a BCCI source had claimed that MS will be back in contention for India's T20 World Cup squad if his performances are above per in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year.

"It was a pretty straightforward selection meeting and since Dhoni was obviously not in the reckoning this time (for South Africa series), there was no formal talk about his future," the BCCI source said.

"He will be back in the reckoning only if he has a good IPL. And why only him, there are so many senior and young players who will play in the IPL. If they do well, they are ought to be considered too. So, you could see some surprise inclusions," the source further added.

The kick-off of the 13th edition of the IPL was postponed as a precautionary measure against the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in India.

BCCI on Friday (March 13) decided to suspend IPL 2020 till April 15, 2020.

The opening match of this year's IPL was supposed to be played between the most successful teams of IPL - defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) - at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on March 29.