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MS Dhoni retires from Test cricket, to play ODIs and T20s

India captain announces retirement to concentrate on ODI and T20

Mumbai: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has announced retirement from Test cricket following the drawn match against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday. The 33-year-old's decision followed after India failed to save the Border- Gavaskar Trophy. He was unbeaten on 24. Virat Kohli will lead the side in the fourth and final Test against Australia in Sydney.

“He has chosen to retire from Test cricket in order to concentrate on ODI and T20 formats,” said a BCCI statement.

Read: Twitterati react to Dhoni's retirement from Test cricket

The statement added: “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. He has chosen tor etire with immediate effect in order to concentrate on other formats.”

It all started for him with the 2007 World T20, and that was followed by a dream run in ODIs and Tests too, as he presided over India's rise to the pinnacle of Test cricket from 2009-11.

Besides the triumph in the inaugural T20 World Championship, India also won the ODI World Cup in 2011 at home under his captaincy, breaking a 28-year-old jinx since the maiden triumph in 1983.

Though on pen and paper, he said the effort of playing in all three formats was taking a toll but there will be speculations over the decision to withdraw with immediate effect, before the closure of the series against Australia. Chances are high that the pressure of low success rate overseas forced him to take the call. Eight back-to-back losses away (whitewashed by England and Australia) and then, almost the same treatment in England (with only one win) early this year could have triggered him to concentrate only on the limited-over format – where he has been successful. There will also be debates whether he felt insulted with his name constantly being dragged into the spot-fixing controversy during IPL 2013 being close to BCCI chief-in-exile N Srinivasan.

Read: Dhoni's decision comes as a huge surprise: Sunil Gavaskar

He, as well as the national team, went through on-field transition as well as off-field controversies surrounding the Indian Premier League 6 spot-fixing scandal that rocked Indian cricket.

If he had faced criticism over the controversies, Dhoni was also not spared when it came to his batting especially against top quality bowling on the fast and bouncy wickets
away from home.
Overall Dhoni led India in 60 Tests, winning 27 of them and losing 18 with a success rate of 45.00. 14 matches had ended in draws. Under his captaincy, the team managed to win just six Tests on overseas while losing 15 and drawing nine. In batting, he averaged 40.63 as captain, and totalled
3454 runs with a best of 224. He had hit five centuries as captain. Dhoni's overall Test record stands at 4876 runs in 90 matches with 224 being the best-ever score in a single innings, with six tons and 33 half centuries, averaging 38.09.
Nicknamed 'Captain Cool' for his calm demeanour in the
face of challenging situations, Dhoni's sudden retirement was
complete shocker for the followers of the game given that he did not give hint of it even though he was addressing his final press conference as India's Test captain.
( Source : dc )
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