Sandeep Patil reveals that the selectors would have dropped Sachin Tendulkar from ODIs had he not himself retired

Former chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil has revealed that batting legend Sachin Tendulkar would have found himself out of the 50-overs team had he not retired from the format in 2012.

Revealing the backdrop of Tendulkar’s retirement from the limited-overs game, Patil revealed that the selectors had a chat with the batsman, post the fourth Test against England at Nagpur and added that perhaps the right-hander understood what they were trying to indicate.

"As long as I remember, it was December 12, 2012, Nagpur. Sachin got out and the selectors decided to meet him and ask him about his wish. I was the one who staged the meet, being the chairman of selectors, and it was purely to understand what was running in his mind. It was a good thing to do. It did not happen in one day, one month or one year, it took two long years. Sachin retired in 2013. The meeting in Nagpur was just to ask his plans. Sachin wanted to concentrate more on Test cricket. So, it was decided that he would retire from One-day cricket. He called me and Sanjay Jagdale (then BCCI secretary). Then it was collectively decided that he would retire from ODIs,” Patil told ABP Majha.

"On December 12, 2012, we met Sachin and asked him about his future plans. He said he did not have retirement on his mind. But the selection committee had reached a consensus on Sachin... and had informed the board too about it. Perhaps Sachin understood what was coming because at the time of the next meeting, Sachin called and said he was retiring (from ODIs). If he had not announced his decision to quit then, we would have definitely dropped him,” Patil added.

In the same interview, the former right-hander also confessed that there were talk within the panel of replacing MS Dhoni as skipper, but they didn’t so, keeping in mind that the 2015 World Cup in Austalia and New Zealand was in the vicinity.

He also admitted that the retirement of Dhoni came as a shock for them.

Post the 2008 season, Tendulkar was very active as far as Test cricket was concerned, but in the 50-over game, he had become selective of the events that he featured in. He was part of the squad for the 2009 Champions Trophy as well as the 2011 World Cup, where he made two centuries.

But post that World Cup win, he didn't feature in any ODI tournaments until the 2012 Commonwealth Bank series and the subsequent Asia Cup, where he notched his up 100^th international hundred against Bangladesh in Mirpur and then scored a fifty against Pakistan in the next game, which, in the end, turned out to be his last.