Bike-loving Dhoni ends his long test ride

Thursday, 1 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

NEW DELHI (Reuters): The words “honour” and “virtue” are written across Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s chest in his Twitter profile picture, fitting words for the Indian who displayed both qualities in abundance during his 90-test career. The honorary Indian Army lieutenant colonel dropped a bombshell by announcing his retirement from tests at the age of 33 moments after helping India secure a draw in the third match against Australia.

The series was lost but it was an abrupt end to a career in which Dhoni emerged from the cricketing backwaters of Jharkhand to take arguably the most difficult job in the sport – leading the national team of 1.2 billion cricket-crazy Indians. He rose from being a ticket inspector with Indian Railways to a charismatic bike-loving cricketer with flowing locks who often changed hairstyles and befriended Bollywood actors. Dhoni developed his own batting and keeping techniques, tinkered with conventional field settings and displayed a natural tendency to take calculated risks while maintaining a Zen-like calm. Under his leadership, India won the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 and the 50-over World Cup four years later and were the top-ranked test team for a year and half in between. But India’s most successful test captain also presided over a dismal away record with the team winning only two of 22 tests on foreign soil since 2011. The burden of captaining and keeping wicket in all three formats of the game also took its toll on Dhoni’s body. Runs began to dry up in tests and his movement behind the stumps slowed down, resulting in spilt catches and fluffed stumpings. Dhoni’s usual limited-over pro-activeness often deserted him in the test arena and the clamour was growing to hand the job over to Virat Kohli, an animated antithesis to Dhoni’s phlegmatic brand of captaincy. “He must have been very impressed with how Virat captained and handled the pressure in the first test,” former India captain Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports, referring to the Adelaide test which Dhoni missed due to injury. “He would have thought ‘Virat is ready, so it’s better to make way now’ and that’s what he has done,” Gavaskar added. While Kohli’s superiority as a test batsman is beyond doubt, the 26-year-old’s ability to control his emotions, which often threaten to get the better of him, will be tested. Dhoni leaves test cricket with a 45 percent winning record as captain to focus on his favoured limited-overs game, starting with leading India’s title defence in the 50-over World Cup. Dhoni will once again marshal his team mates in the tournament in Australia and New Zealand starting in February, and his fans will go into raptures every time he unfurls his trademark “helicopter shot”.

Reaction to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s test retirement

MELBOURNE (Reuters): India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his test retirement with immediate effect on Tuesday. Following is reaction to the news. Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar on Twitter: “Well done on a wonderful career in test cricket @msdhoni. Always enjoyed playing together. Next target 2015 WC my friend!!” Former England captain Michael Vaughan on Twitter: “Love the way @msdhoni plays the game ... But it’s now the right time for @imVkohli to take the Indian Test team in a new direction.” Former India captain Anil Kumble on Twitter: “Chennai 2 G, Great career MSD @msdhoni retired as captain. Way 2 go! Well done buddy on a fantastic test inning! Good luck!” Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar to Star Sports: “He was a top class leader...the biggest thing about Mahendra Singh Dhoni is he’s been a supremely content person with whatever has come his way in life. No better state to be in than being supremely content.” Former England captain Nasser Hussain on Sky Sports: “His 45 per cent win-rate, the highest of any Indian captain to skipper the side at least five times, is phenomenal but just as impressive is the way he has led the side with such dignity and calmness during his 60 Tests in charge.” India cricketer Suresh Raina on Twitter: “Valiant while you led. Valiant in your departure. #Respect”.