Former India skipper M.S. Dhoni, who led India to three International Cricket Council (ICC) titles, will join the national team as mentor for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup to be held in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman in October-November.


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Dhoni will work closely with India team head coach Ravi Shastri during the competition, said Indian cricket board secretary Jay Shah during the announcement of the India squad in a press conference.


"Mr Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be joining Team India as mentor for the upcoming T20 World Cup. I am glad that MS has accepted BCCI's offer and he is keen to contribute to the national team once again. MS will work closely with Mr Ravi Shastri as well as other support staff to provide support and direction to Team India," said Jay Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to the media in a virtual interaction.


Meanwhile, fans are delighted that India’s most successful captain will mark a return to the Indian dressing room and they took to Twitter to show their excitement. Even former India batsman Wassim Jaffer shared a Rajnikanth meme to celebrate the occasion.


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Notably, Dhoni, who took international retirement last year, was the captain of the Indian cricket team which won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007. The former India wicketkeeper-batsman played 98 T20Is in his career and scored 1617 runs at an average of 37.6 and a strike rate of 126.13.


MS Dhoni in ICC T20 World Cups:


2007 - Captain


2009 - Captain


2010 - Captain


2012 - Captain


2014 - Captain


2016 - Captain


2021 – Mentor


Also, Dhoni is the only captain to have won all three ICC tournaments, the T20 World Cup in 2007, the ODI World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013.


Meanwhile, BCCI announced the India squad for the T20 World Cup, and in a surprise move, R Ashwin has been included in the team which will begin its campaign in the showpiece event against arch-rivals Pakistan.


Here’s the Team India squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2021:


Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd Shami.


Standby players – Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.


India's T20 World Cup Schedule: Oct 24: vs Pakistan (Dubai), Oct 31: vs New Zealand (Dubai); Nov 3: vs Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi); Nov 5: vs Qualifier - B1 (Dubai); Nov 8: vs Qualifier - A2 (Dubai).