Sandeep Patil, who was replaced as chairman of the BCCI selection committee by MSK Prasad after his term ended, said on Wednesday that during his tenure there were discussions on removing Mahendra Singh Dhoni from captaincy. However, Dhoni's retirement from Tests stumped them completely.
"Of course, we had a brief discussion about [removing Dhoni from captaincy] on a few occasions. We wanted to experiment by handing the baton [to somebody else], but we thought the time was not right with World Cup [2015] round the corner," Patil told ABP News in an interview.
"We felt that the new captain should be given some time to set things right. Keeping that in mind in the World Cup, we had gone with Dhoni. I believe Virat [Kohli] got the captaincy at the right time. Virat can lead the team in shorter formats as well, but that decision rests with the new selection committee," said Patil.
Patil termed Dhoni's decision to retire from Tests "shocking", as the team was facing a tough Test series in Australia.
"It was a very tough series. I won't say Dhoni was captain of a sinking ship but things quite didn't move in our favour. And in this backdrop, one of your senior players decides to retire. That was shocking but at the end of the day, it was his (Dhoni's) personal decision," he said.
Patil also clarified that there was no truth to accusations of Dhoni's playing a role in getting rid of seniors in the Indian team, such as Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh.
“I feel disappointed when I read reports about Dhoni's relations with Gambhir and Yuvraj. Dhoni never opposed their selection. It was completely the selectors' decision to drop them and Dhoni did not have any say in dropping Gambhir and Yuvraj. Both the captains never opposed any player," said Patil.
