MS Dhoni announces retirement from international cricket

In a startling revelation, MS Dhoni seems to have announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect. The former Indian captain made the declaration in a heartfelt Instagram post, where he put up a video of all the memories, he has with the Indian cricket team.

“Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. From 1929 hrs consider me as Retired,” the video was captioned on Instagram.

While people were initially taken aback by the video and indeed, MS Dhoni’s announcement of retirement from international cricket, they started making more sense of the development when his wife Sakshi Singh Rawat commented on the post.

MS Dhoni was last seen in action for the Indian cricket team during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, where the Men In Blue stumbled at the penultimate stage against New Zealand.

In that encounter, MS Dhoni, along with Ravindra Jadeja, tried to script a historic comeback once the Kiwis had sent India’s vaunted top-order packing. However, MS Dhoni, despite notching up a fifty, was run out in the 49th over when Martin Guptill conjured a sensational throw from deep square leg.

Post the dismissal, MS Dhoni was seen holding back his tears and has not donned the Indian cricket team jersey since, making himself unavailable for all the series that followed.

MS Dhoni is the only captain to win all three ICC trophies

MS Dhoni will go down in history as one of India’s most successful captain and the only skipper ever to have won the ICC Cricket World Cup (2011), ICC World T20 (2007) and the ICC Champions Trophy (2013).

Additionally, the wicket-keeper took the Indian cricket team to the perch of the ICC Test Rankings and also led India to an unprecedented Commonwealth Bank Series tri-series triumph in 2008.

As for his numbers as a batsman, MS Dhoni made 10773 runs across 350 ODIs at an average of 50.57, 4876 runs in 90 Tests at an average of 38.09 and 1617 runs in 98 T20Is.

Having announced his international retirement, it would be interesting to see how MS Dhoni fares in the upcoming edition of the IPL, where he is expected to lead the Chennai Super Kings as the franchise hopes to equal the Mumbai Indians’ tally of 4 IPL crowns.