MUMBAI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni is no longer an automatic choice in ODIs and the former India captain needs to keep performing to be involved in the 2019 World Cup, chief selector M.S.K. Prasad has said.

Dhoni, will be 38 in 2019.

“Whenever a player keeps ageing... I was just reading [Andre] Agassi’s book Open, his life actually started after 30 years,” Prasad said.

“Till then he won two or three [grand slams]. His actual life started after that. He lived with media pressure, ‘When are you going to retire?’ But he played till 36 and he won so many grand slams. So you never know.

“We don’t say it is an automatic this thing... but we will see. We are all stakeholders. We all want the Indian team to do well. If he is delivering, why not? If he is not, we will have to look at alternatives.”

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2017