Melbourne: India’s consecutive lacklustre performance in overseas tests since 2011 has finally brought a decade long Test career of captain cool Dhoni to an unexpected end. Yes, MS Dhoni has announced his retirement from test cricket in Melbourne with immediate effect.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni retires from Test cricket
His contribution to the Indian cricket in all formats of the game has been the glorious one. When Dhoni is at his best he is unstoppable. His charisma is unmatched and he leads the team in an exemplary fashion. It was Dhoni’s captaincy that brought India to the top of the ICC test cricket ranking in 2009. Nonetheless, his two world cup winning record is still the spectacular achievement for team India under his immaculate leadership.
The untimely announcement of Dhoni’s retirement has stunned everyone. Even his fans and colleagues are totally clueless about this sudden decision taken by him. Undoubtedly he is one of the finest captains in the game of cricket in the contemporary era, but with the series loss at the Melbourne cricket ground the 33-year-old decided to hang his boots from test cricket.
Former Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly pointed out that somewhere MS Dhoni thought about it way earlier. He was unable to get the best out of his team in overseas test matches and his own performance was not going in his favor either. The senior wicket-keeper batsman was struggling with his own form in away test matches.
There were dual pressures for the Indian captain. The first one was off course his own form because he could have opted out of the test captaincy if his good form in overseas tests remains intact. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Even in the current Border-Gavaskar Trophy, his average was around 17 runs at the end of India’s first inning in Melbourne. On the other hand Dhoni’s captaincy in overseas test matches was under a scanner for the last three years. India lost to England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand during this period and it invited further criticism about his leadership abilities on foreign pitches.
There is no doubt that this wonder boy from Jharkhand did a splendid work for India in tests with his charismatic captaincy. He might have retired from tests, but fans and his teammates can never forget his selfless contribution as the captain of team India and a helpful colleague.
MS Dhoni’s captaincy record in Tests:
| Venues | Played | Win | Lost | Draw/Tie | Win % | ||
| In India | 30 | 21 | 3 | 6 | 70 | ||
| Outside India | 30 | 6 | 15 | 9 | 20 | ||
| Total | 60 | 27 | 18 | 15 | 45 | ||
Dhoni has captained India in 60 tests (most by any Indian captain) and India won a record 27 of them and lost 18 test matches with the remaining 15 matches ended in a draw. The overall the win percentage of the captain remains at 45 %, which is still the highest figure for any Indian captain until now. He is undisputedly the most successful captain in the history of Indian cricket.
There were some issues with Dhoni’s style of batting in test matches in the early days of his career, but he won against all odds with his sheer patience and batting talent. For the record Dhoni played 90 tests and made a total of 4876 runs at an average of 38. He also scored six tons and 33 half centuries in his test career. As a wicket-keeper he took 256 catches and 38 stumpings. Currently he is the world record holder for stumping maximum number of times. Dhoni has stumped a total of 134 times in his international career.
Thank you Dhoni!
Tags: Australia, Border Gavaskar Trophy, Cricket, India, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Melbourne, MS Dhoni, Test Cricket
