Mahendra Singh Dhoni sheds whites, goes full blue

Chennai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni dropped a bombshell on Tuesday with his announcement of immediate retirement from Test cricket. The most successful and celebrated skipper has passed the baton to Virat Kohli, who will lead the team at the fourth Test to be held in Sydney from January 6. After India lost the ongoing Test series to Australia with a drawn third Test in Melbourne, Dhoni sat in a 15-minute post-match press conference. He cheerfully discussed the game, but gave no hint of his retirement which was later announced by the board in a tweet.

“One of India’s greatest Test captains under whose leadership India became the No. 1 team in the Test rankings Dhoni, has decided to retire from Test cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of cricket,” the BCCI said in a statement.The announcement 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. The BCCI said Dhoni has chosen to retire with immediate effect in order to concentrate on ODI and T20 formats.

BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said “Dhoni’s decision wasn’t taken in haste” and came after a lot of “soul searching and deliberations.”Although Patel did not divulge details of his discussions with Dhoni, he did admit that he knew that Dhoni wanted to “quit one of the formats” in order to concentrate on remaining two formats. “MS is a very practical man. Today, he called up just after the Test match in Melbourne and told me that he wanted to retire from Test cricket. I asked him “what happened are you injured or what?” He just calmly told me “No, I just want to quit Test cricket for good”. He is an Indian captain and a distinguished cricketer. It’s his personal choice and I needed to respect that,” Patel said.

“I asked him ‘Is it your final decision’ and he told me ‘Please wait a bit as I want to inform the boys about my decision and then you can make an official announcement.’ He duly called up and told me that I have informed the boys and you can go ahead. In the meanwhile, I also contacted chairman of selectors Sandeep (Patil) and Shivlal Yadav. Both felt that we should respect Dhoni’s decision,” the BCCI secretary said revealing the turn of events that unfolded early today.

“I was a bit taken aback by the suddenness of his statement. But we had spoken about it before the Test also. Now what transpired between us is an internal matter but I can tell you that it wasn’t a decision taken in haste. It was done after due deliberations,” Patel added.