"You left me midway in my last Test match" - When MS Dhoni stunned Ishant Sharma with retirement revelation during BGT 2014-15

MS Dhoni has a habit of surprising fans and teammates in several different ways. Veteran pacer Ishant Sharma experienced the same in the midst of India's 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign in Australia when Dhoni, out of nowhere, revealed that he was retiring from Test cricket.

The cricket legend missed the first Test of the four-match series in Adelaide due to a thumb injury and Virat Kohli led the team in his absence. Dhoni returned to lead India in the second Test in Brisbane, which the visitors lost by four wickets. However, he stunned fans by announcing his retirement from Test cricket after the Boxing Day contest in Adelaide ended in a draw.

Ishant, who was part of India's playing XI in the MCG game, was as clueless about the development until Dhoni suddenly brought up the topic during an interaction. Speaking to Team India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin during a video interaction in February 2021, the lanky fast bowler recalled that he was taking injections during the MCG Test due to pain in his knee.

A discussion on his fitness woes with the then-captain led to the fast bowler learning of a stunning development that no one saw coming.

Ishant recalled while speaking to Ashwin:

“I felt very bad (on MS Dhoni’s retirement). I had taken many injections for that Melbourne Test match because I was experiencing severe pain in my knee. I did not know that Mahi bhai (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) was going to retire. In fact, nobody knew that he was going to retire. So I was taking an injection every session."

“At tea on the fourth day, I told Mahi bhai I cannot take injections any more. So he told me, that’s okay. You don’t need to bowl now. Then something happened, and he told me, ‘lambu tune mujhe Test match mein chod diya’ (you left me during the Test). I did not understand. Then he elaborated, ‘you left me midway in my last Test match’,” the 36-year-old added.

Watch from 5:25 onwards

On how he reacted to Dhoni's shocking decision, Ishant added:

“I was stunned. I told him if I knew I would definitely have continued to play. So that was a really touching story. I didn’t know till the last day that he was retiring."

Following Dhoni's decision to quit Test cricket after the 2014-15 MCG Test, Kohli was named full-time captain. Under the latter's leadership, India won a Test series for the first time in Australia in 2018-19.

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How MS Dhoni fared in his last Test series

While the former India keeper-batter missed the first Test of the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to a thumb injury, he scored 33 & 0 in the second Test in Brisbane, which India lost by four wickets.

In what was to be his final Test, Dhoni scored 11 & 24* in a drawn encounter at the MCG. Overall, he played 90 Tests, scoring 4,876 runs at an average of 38.09, with six hundreds.