Indian cricket fans will never see MS Dhoni wear the Indian blue jersey again. The former Indian captain who has avoided questions of his retirement for years, surprised everyone by announcing his retirement on Saturday night in a short Instagram post.
Dhoni once again did things his way by using Instagram to announce his retirement instead of going to the media or looking to play one more game for India and go out on his teammates shoulders.
MS Dhoni Retires On Instagram
MS Dhoni put out a two line post and thanked his fans for their love and support. His second line said consider me retired from 1729 hours. There was no interviews or no further explanation as to what prompted him to make this decision suddenly.
MS Dhoni has not played international cricket for India since their semi-final ICC World Cup loss in June 2019. There was speculation that Dhoni would retire after the World Cup but he did not retire but just faded away from the public eye. There was a lot of pressure on the BCCI to provide more information on MS Dhoni’s future but no one was able to get a comment from Dhoni.
Head coach Ravi Shastri said at the start of 2020 that MS Dhoni would play the 2020 IPL and based on his performance they would consider him for the T20 World Cup in Australia which was scheduled for October 2020. However, COVID-19 saw the IPL get postponed and the T20 World Cup get postponed.
It made it difficult for the 39 year old Dhoni to continue to push for a place in the World Cup squad in 2021. Dhoni knew that with the 2020 IPL taking place in the UAE, he would keep getting questions on his retirement and decided to call time on his career before the IPL commenced and avoid all of those retirement questions.
Best Captain India Has Produced
Dhoni will definitely go down as the best Indian captain in history till date as he led India to a T20 World Cup, the Champions Trophy and an ODI World Cup win. He will also go down as the best wicket-keeper batsmen that India has produced and also one of the best T20 and ODI finishers in the world.
Dhoni commanded respect with his leadership style as he led from the front. MSD finishes with an ODI average of 50.57, which is even better than Sachin Tendulkar. He is also one of the two batsmen who has scored more than 10,00 ODI runs and still has an average of over 50. He also has 444 ODI dismissals as a wicket-keeper.
In test cricket, he made a total of 4,876 runs at an average of 38 and had a total of 294 dismissals. In T20 cricket, he made a total of 1617 runs at an average of 37 and had a total of 91 dismissals.
Tributes Flow In For Dhoni
A number of cricketers took to social media to send in their tributes and wish Dhoni well on his retirement. Captain Virat Kohli wrote an emotional tribute on Instagram saying that the country will never forget what you have done. Kohli said the warmth, respect and camaraderie that they shared will always stay in his heart.
Sachin Tendulkar also congratulated Dhoni and said winning the 2011 World Cup on Dhoni was the best cricketing moment in his life. He wished Dhoni all the best in his second innings. Kevin Pietersen welcomed Dhoni to the retirement club and said Dhoni finished a magical career.
R Ashwin who did not have the greatest relationship with Dhoni said the legend retired in his own style as always and wished him all the best in his future endeavours.
Suresh Raina who is one of Dhoni’s closest friends also announced his retirement from international cricket.
