MELBOURNE: In a shocking turn of events, Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni today retired from Test cricket with immediate effect, citing strain of playing all formats, after his team lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia here. Reuters file photo
Mahendra Singh Dhoni today surprised the cricket world with his sudden announcement of immediate retirement from Test cricket, making way for Virat Kohli to don the mantle of captaincy.
Announcement of Dhoni’s retirement after the wicketkeeper-batsman had played in 90 Test matches, 60 of them as captain, was made immediately after India lost the current Test series to Australia following a drawn third Test here.
“One of India’s greatest Test Captains under whose leadership India became the No. 1 team in the Test Rankings MS Dhoni, has decided to retire from Test Cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of Cricket,” the BCCI said in a statement.
“M S Dhoni has chosen to retire from Test Cricket with immediate effect in order to concentrate on ODI and T20 formats. BCCI while respecting the decision of M S Dhoni to retire from Test Cricket, wishes to thank him for his enormous contribution to Test Cricket and the laurels that he has brought to India,” it added.
India, trailing 0-2 in the four-match series after today’s draw, would be led by the 26-year-old Kohli in the fourth and final match in Sydney. Kohli has been India’s standout performer with the bat in the ongoing series, having scored three hundreds so far.
“Virat Kohli will be the captain of the Indian Team for the Fourth and Final Test against Australia to be played in Sydney from the 6th of January 2015,” the BCCI stated.
The 33-year-old Dhoni, however, did not speak about his retirement at the post-match press conference or at the presentation ceremony. The announcement was made through a BCCI press release.
The BCCI statement was a bolt from the blue as Dhoni, despite his poor overseas track record as captain, had not given any indication that he would step down in the near future.
Dhoni, who led India to an unprecedented two World Cup titles (2007 Twenty20 World Championships and the 2011 ODI World Cup), had been drawing flak for India’s poor run in overseas Tests. India have won just six away Tests out of the 30 that Dhoni has captained.
Among the most embarrassing defeats under Dhoni were the 0-4 whitewashes suffered in England (2011) and Australia (2011-12). Besides the team also suffered defeats in South Africa and New Zealand and had been beaten by England yet again this summer.
Yet the wicketkeeper-batsman remains one of the most successful captains ever for India, having led the side to the top of ICC rankings in Tests in 2009.
With the team continuing to perform badly overseas, pressure was mounting on Dhoni to quit the job with former players and critics questioning his defensive leadership in the longer format.
The criticism notwithstanding, Dhoni today became the Indian captain to score most runs in Tests, making 3454 runs, going past Sunil Gavaskar (3449), Mohammad Azharuddin (2856) and Sourav Ganguly (2561).
In 60 matches as captain, Dhoni had a decent 27 wins, 18 losses and 15 draws to show. In the 90 Tests that he was part of, Dhoni scored 4876 runs at an average of 38.09 with six hundreds and 33 50s to his credit.
Dhoni did not play the first Test in the current series against Australia because of a thumb injury. In his absence, Kohli led the team and won accolades for his attacking approach.
Many former players declared that it was time for Kohli to take over the leadership from Dhoni given that the incumbent had been struggling to present any fresh approach.
Dhoni’s rise was nothing short of meteoric and he took over the Test captaincy from Anil Kumble in 2008 in 2013, he became the most successful Indian Test captain when he eclipsed Sourav Ganguly’s record of 21 victories from 49 Tests.
His record in away Tests may be dismal, but Dhoni proved to be quite successful on home turf, leading the side to 21 wins in 30 Tests.