India spinner and Mahendra Singh Dhoni's colleague at Chennai Super Kings Harbhajan Singh said that he thinks Dhoni has played his last game for India and won't feature again for the Men in Blue even if he has a good Indian Premier League with CSK ahead of the World T20 in Australia.
Dhoni was not handed a central contract by the Board of Control for Cricket in India [BCCI] on Thursday and speculations regarding his future started once again.
Following the development, Harbhajan said that as far as he knows, Dhoni made up his mind long time back and he will not play for India again.
"It is probably the end of the road for MS Dhoni. I heard the World Cup would be his last event for India - after that he won't play for India again. He had made up his mind long back and that is why he has not made himself available," Harbhajan Singh told India Today.
"If Dhoni has a good IPL and is sure he will because he works so hard... I have no doubt he will have a great IPL. As far as I know, he has made up his mind. If he has a good IPL, he will still make himself unavailable. I don't see him making a comeback. Knowing him, he has played his last game for India during the World Cup," Harbhajan added.
Dhoni is yet to play a game for India since their World Cup exit in July 2019 and has made himself unavailable ever since for selection. Therefore, he was dropped from the central contracts list for the year 2019-2020.
"Let me clarify that one of the top-most BCCI office-bearers spoke to MS and told him about how they are going about in the central contracts. He was clearly told that since he hasn't played any game in the said period (September 2019 till date), he cannot be included for the time being," PTI quoted a board official without naming him.
However, Dhoni returned to training with the Jharkhand Ranji Trophy squad on Thursday after being deprived of a contract.
Dhoni showed up at his home team's net practice in Ranchi, indicating that he is gearing himself for the upcoming Indian Premier League.
"Even we did not know that he was going to come and train with us. It was a pleasant surprise. He batted for a while and did the usual training routine," a source close to the Jharkhand team management told PTI.