Ravi Shastri explains the reason behind MS Dhoni taking the match ball  

Putting an end to the hullabaloo about MS Dhoni's speculated retirement from ODIs, Team India coach Ravi Shastri said that the wicket-keeper took the match ball from the on-field umpire during the third ODI against England 'to show the ball to Bharat Arun (India's bowling coach)'.

"MS wanted to show the ball to Bharat Arun. He wanted to show him the wear and tear the ball had endured, to get a general idea of what the conditions were like," Shastri was quoted as saying to the Times of India.

Social media was abuzz with speculations surrounding MS Dhoni's future after match footage saw him asking for the ball from the on-field umpires Bruce Oxenford and Michael Gough while walking back to the pavilion after the end of the England innings during the decider of the ODI series.

Dhoni is known to have a habit of collecting stumps as memorabilia towards the end of a game, but the variation from the usual practice set the word spreading that Dhoni might be planning an immediate retirement.

Here's the video of the MS Dhoni taking the ball from umpires after the game. #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/C14FwhCwfq

— Sai Kishore (@KSKishore537) July 17, 2018

He received a lot of flak for his 'slow' innings in the three-match ODI series and was even booed by the Indian spectators during the second ODI at Lord's, where he compiled a painstaking 37 off 59 balls.

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar likened the innings to his own, controversial 174-ball 36 at the same venue years ago, admitting that Dhoni's 'struggle' reminded him of his infamous knock at the World Cup in 1975.

Dhoni has, in the past, hardly dropped hints about retirement - he called it quits from Test cricket midway through the tour against Australia in 2014, and gave up ODI and T20I captaincy in early 2017 without anyone having even a hint of his decision