Dhoni starts practising with Jharkhand Ranji squad

Dropped from BCCI's central contracts list, former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni began practising with the Jharkhand Ranji Trophy squad on Thursday amid fresh speculation on his future.

The 38-year-old showed up at his home team's net practice in Ranchi, indicating that he is gearing himself for the upcoming Indian Premier League. This was on a day when BCCI axed him from the list of centrally contracted players.

"Even we did not know that he was going to come and train with us. It was a pleasant surprise. He batted for a while and did the usual training routine," a source close to the Jharkhand team management told PTI.

Jharkhand's next match is against Uttarakhand, starting Sunday in Ranchi.

Dhoni has not played a competitive game since the World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand on July 9.

Head coach Ravi Shastri has hinted that the celebrated wicketkeeper-batsman might retired from ODIs soon but will be in contention for a T20 World Cup berth provided he does well for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.

The T20 World Cup will be held in Australia in October.