A simple photo remembering what Virat Kohli described as the ‘game he can never forget’ triggered a huge speculation which soon spiraled into is MS Dhoni announcing his retirement question. Kohli had shared the photo with Dhoni around 11 am on Thursday and by the time the sun set, the Dhoni retirement speculations escalated so much that India’s chairman of selectors MSK Prasad, Dhoni’s wife Sakshi had to come out in public to deny the reports. While all this was happening, Dhoni’s IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) came up with perhaps the best possible tweet.
Using a quote from a popular television series Game of Thrones (GoT), CSK tweeted, “Not today,” on Thursday. Though the Yellow brigade did not mention anything about Dhoni’s retirement in the tweet but the indication was clear. They used Dhoni’s jersey number 7 instead of the letter ‘t’ to make their intentions clear. In GoT, a popular character named Arya Stark was taught to say “not today’’ by her instructor to the God of death.
Not 7oday. 🦁💛
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) September 12, 2019
@ChennaiIPL @msdhoni pic.twitter.com/Hse3frkSz7
— Prasanna (@itispkda) September 12, 2019
What do we say to the haters ? 🔥🔥♥️ #Dhoni #DhoniInBillionHearts #DhoniRetirement pic.twitter.com/fxnQkpaE3I
— saravanan nagarajan (@saravann96) September 12, 2019
Is this Arya Stark’s #NotToday?
— Saurabh Mishra (@realSRBH) September 12, 2019
Not 7oday #DiehardYuviFan #YuviantillDeath @YUVSTRONG12 #yuvrajsingh pic.twitter.com/AISHmPw49C
— muneeswaranᴬˢᵘʳᵃⁿ (@Muneeswaran1212) September 12, 2019
GoT reference to GOAT… Super admin..
— Rajiv M (@rajivM_10) September 12, 2019
CSK came up with a wittier response when a fan asked them to clarify the meaning of their ‘not today’ tweet. They used a red cross emoticon after a full stop (.) and a green tick after a coma (,) which left the fans perplexed. Many, however, believed that the franchise wanted to suggest that this was not the end of Dhoni and merely a pause in his career.
. ❌
, ✅— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) September 12, 2019
India captain Virat Kohli posted a picture of a Super 10 match against Australia during WT20 2016 and his post read: “A game I can never forget. Special night. This man, made me run like in a fitness test.”@msdhoni.” The photo is where all the speculation about Dhoni’s retirement began.
A game I can never forget. Special night. This man, made me run like in a fitness test 😄 @msdhoni 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/pzkr5zn4pG
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) September 12, 2019
However, Sakshi took to social media to end such talks with a simple message and her Twitter post read: “Its called rumours!” Earlier, during the press conference after announcement of India’s 15-member Test squad against South Africa, chief selector MSK Prasad too quashed such reports by saying: “No update on MS Dhoni’s retirement, the news is incorrect.”
Dhoni, who had taken a two-month sabbatical from the sport, is currently vacationing in the United States, having served the Territorial Army for 15 days.
First Published:
Sep 13, 2019 13:10 IST
