India’s domestic One-Day tournament, Vijay Hazare Trophy has entered the playoffs stage. The quarter-finals are set to be played on October 14 and 15. Even a few of the international players are set to grace their presence for their respective state teams. Rohit Sharma will feature for Mumbai while MS Dhoni was expected to take the field for Jharkhand. However, the latter will not be playing for his state team in the knockout stage of the tournament.

Earlier, there were reports of MS will play against Maharashtra donning Jharkhand‘s jersey for their quarter-final game. This was a great opportunity for him to resurrect his batting issues given the fact that the veteran has struggled a lot this year to make any contribution while playing for Team India. Even the former Indian cricketers had adviced him to play the 50-over tournament in order to gain some confidence with the willow.

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As per the reports in The Hindu, Jharkhand coach Rajiv Kumar has clarified all the air around MS Dhoni playing for the team in the knockout stages of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He said, “M.S. Dhoni will not play for Jharkhand in Vijay Hazare Trophy knockout rounds.”

While the reason of the senior player not featuring in these games is not yet clear, this proves to be a big blow for Jharkhand only a couple of days ahead of the crucial game. Dhoni’s presence in the change room would’ve helped the youngsters in the team a lot. He has more often than not taken up a role of mentor these days and it would’ve made a lot of difference.

As far as Jharkhand’s performance in the tournament is concerned, they topped the Elite group C after playing nine games with winning seven of them and remained unbeaten throughout the group stage. A couple of matches were washed out and are looking a good unit under the leadership of Ishan Kishan.