MUMBAI: Sachin Tendulkar would have been dropped from India’s ODI team in 2012 had he not announced his retirement, former chief selector Sandeep Patil revealed in an interview to a Marathi channel on Wednesday.

It was heavily speculated in the media at the time of Tendulkar’s retirement that the former batting great had been nudged by the national selectors to leave.

“On Dec 12, 2012, we met Sachin and asked him about his future plans. He said he did not have retirement on his mind. But the selection committee had reached a consensus on Sachin ... and had informed the board too about it,” said Patil.

“Perhaps Sachin understood what was coming because at the time of the next meeting, Sachin called and said he was retiring [from ODIs].

“If he had not announced his decision to quit then, we would have definitely dropped him,” added Patil in his revelation.

Patil also felt that MS Dhoni ‘s decision to retire from Tests in the middle of a Test series against Australia in 2014 was “shocking”.

“Things didn’t move in our favour, and in that backdrop one of your senior players decided to hang his gloves. That was shocking, but in the end, it was his decision,” he said. — PTI

Published in Dawn September 28th, 2016