MS Dhoni, former India captain continues to play for Chennai Super Kings even though he has retired from international cricket in 2020. On 15 August 2020, Dhoni announced his retirement from the highest level after playing his last game for the Men in Blue in 2019. On the other hand, veteran spinner Piyush Chawla last played for India in 2012 and since then, never managed to get into the Indian team. He has been playing in the IPL for Mumbai Indians and playing domestic cricket for Uttar Pradesh. Chawla will turn 36 this year while Dhoni turned 43 in July this year.
Over the last few seasons, questions about Dhoni’s retirement from the sport have always arisen. However, the three-time ICC tournament winning captain has denied and continues to play. Meanwhile, Chawla, who was asked about which player will retire first – Dhoni or Chawla, he said “Mahi bhai. A while ago, Prithvi Shaw told me ‘Bas karo yaar ab PC bhai’. I said, I’ve played with Sachin paaji, and now playing with his son. I am playing with you, and after playing with you son, I will retire,” the veteran India spinner said on The Shubhankar Mishra show.
Piyush Chawla’s illustrious career – Two World Cups and an IPL trophy
The right-arm leg spinner was part of India’s T20 World Cup win in 2007. Four years later, he played a few games during India’s ODI World Cup winning campaign. Apart from this, Chawla was also part of Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL winning campaign in 2014 in which he hit the winning runs. While playing for Mumbai Indians in 2023, he was one of the highest wicket-takers for the team which qualified for the playoffs.
Talking about his stint with the five-time IPL winners, he said “With due respect to everyone, MI had good spinners but somewhere down the line, experience matters. If a pressure situation arises, the way an experienced campaigner will handle it, a youngster won’t be able to. When we were 20-21, we used to bowl to escape punishment, now we do it to pick wickets. He added, ‘Why Piyush Chawla, and this that?’, I said fine, let them talk. Then the same people started messaging me, posting on social media such as ‘PC is back, PC 2.0.”