Former India captain MS Dhoni had taken the ball from umpire during the third ODI against England. This sparked retirement rumours of the former skipper but Indian coach Ravi Shastri was the one who refuted the same. Now, MS Dhoni revealed the reason for the same while speaking to the ICC website and said that he had taken the ball keeping in mind the World Cup 2019.

Since we will be playing the World Cup in England, we must know what we have to do to get the reverse swing going. The opposition is getting it, so we should also get it at some point or the other. That's why I did that [took the ball from umpire]," said MS Dhoni.  He also mentioned that this would help the team to improve their bowling at the cricket's biggest stage next summer.

"After 50 overs, the ball is useless to the ICC, so I requested the umpire for the ball and gave it to our bowling coach and said we need to work on it so that we can get a bit of reverse swing going. That will help the fast bowlers get those yorkers or wickets towards close or after the 40-over mark. That will help us restrict the opposition in the last 10 overs," he further said.

Dhoni faced a lot of backlash for his innings of 42 runs from 66 balls. Sourav Ganguly had said, “ If Dhoni has got to play, then he has got to get in a position where he keeps hitting. If it is 24-25 overs and he has got to build an innings, he is struggling at the moment. He may turn it around as he has been a great player for India but at the present, he is not turning it around enough and this has been going on for more than a year. India are too top heavy at the moment. If your top-order doesn't get runs, then you are struggling. It is a big issue. You have to have quality like England have."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 10, 2018 10:18 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).