Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajiv Shukla has backed MS Dhoni and claimed that he still has a lot of cricket left in him and its totally up to him when he decides to hang up his boots.

"Dhoni is a great cricketer and there is a lot more cricket left in him. But, he has to decide when he should take retirement," Shukla said while speaking on the speculations of Dhoni's retirement.

"The BCCI has a policy in place that a cricketer has to take a call on when to take retirement," he added.

In January, When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officially unveiled the central contracts for Indian cricketers, one thing which caught everyone's attention was the exclusion of Dhoni.

With questions over the wicketkeeper-batsman's retirement doing the rounds, the decision to exclude him just gave rise to more speculations.

Ever since India's semi-final exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 against New Zealand in August last year, MSD made himself unavailable for selection. During his break from cricket, the 38-year-old also served for the Indian Army too.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and head coach Ravi Shastri in the past have also claimed that the decision to retire from the game is totally up to MSD and there is still a leeway for the veteran cricketer to earn a spot in the national side for the upcoming 2020 T20 World Cup if his performances with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are up to per.

“Exactly what I wanted to ask you. There is IPL coming. Uske baad tum dekho. Everyone will know. He will know, selectors will know, the captain will know seeing him, and more important than anything else he will know," Shastri said on MSD.

"What I’m trying to tell the people is he is the last person to impose himself on anything. You know him. I know him," he added