Dhoni Retires from Test Cricket
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 decision comes after India drew the third Test in Melbourne. Out of the 90 Tests he played, Dhoni led India in 60 matches. Dhoni finished with most Test wins as India captain (27), beating the previous best of 21 wins held by Sourav Ganguly.
A BCCI statement said, “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. Dhoni has chosen to retire from Tests with immediate effect in order to concentrate on ODIs and T20 formats.
“BCCI, while respecting the decision of Dhoni to retire from Test cricket, wishes to thank him for his enormous contribution to Tests and the laurels that he has brought to India.”
Virat Kohli will captain India in the fourth and final Test against Australia in Sydney from January 6. India have already lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy having lost the first two Tests in Adelaide and Brisbane. Kohli had led in the first Test when Dhoni preferred to rest his injured right hand.
Dhoni bowed out of Test cricket in style. In his final series in Australia, Dhoni became the first Indian wicketkeeper to effect nine dismissals in a Test match in Melbourne.
Overall, he became the third wicketkeeper to achieve the feat versus Australia, the first two being David Murray (West Indies) at Melbourne in December 1981 and Ridley Jacobs (West Indies) at Melbourne in December 2000 being the other two.
With the bat, Dhoni also became the first Indian batsman to complete 10,000 runs or more as captain in international cricket, joining Ricky Ponting (15440), Graeme Smith (14878), Stephen Fleming (11561) and Allan Border (11062).
