MS Dhoni, the former captain of the Indian cricket team, has announced his retirement from international cricket. He has chosen Independence Day to announce his retirement.
Dhoni made the confirmation through a video on Instagram, its caption reading: “Thanks. Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. From 1929 hrs consider me as Retired.”
Dhoni captained the Indian national team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2016 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014.
He is the only captain in the history of Cricket to win all ICC trophies.
Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the 2010 and 2016 Asia Cups, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.
A right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper, Dhoni is one of the highest run scorers in One Day Internationals (ODIs) with more than 10,000 runs scored and is considered an effective “finisher” in limited-overs formats..
He is also regarded by some as one of the best wicket-keepers and captains in modern limited-overs international cricket.
Dhoni played 90 Tests and scored 4876 runs with six hundreds at an average of 38.09 with 224 being his highest score. He took 256 catches and stumped 38 in Tests.
In ODIs, he played 350 matches, scored 10, 773 runs, 10 hundreds at 50.f7 average, taking 321 catches and effecting 123 stumpings.
In T20, he played 98 international matches, scored 1617 runs at an average of 37.60 with 56 being his highest. He did 57 catches, 34 stumpings in T20s.
Dhoni made his ODI debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka.
As a captain, Dhoni broke all records of any Indian captain. He has won most ODIs and T20s under his captaincy. He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007. After taking up the Test captaincy in 2008, he led the team to series wins in New Zealand and the West Indies and the Border-Gavaskar trophy in 2008, 2010 and 2013. In 2009, Dhoni led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test rankings.
In 2013, under his captaincy, India became the first team to whitewash Australia in a Test series. In the IPl, he captained the Chennai Super Kings to victory in 2010, 2011 and 2018 seasons, along with wins int eh 2010 and 2014 editions of the Champions League Twenty 20. In 2011, Time magazine included Dhoni in its annual Time 100 list as one of the “most influential people in the world.” In 2012, SportsPro rated Dhoni as the 16th most marketable athlete in the world. Forbes ranked Dhoni at 23rd in the list of highest paid athletes in the world, estimating his earnings at US $31 million. In 2016, a biopic was made on him, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story in which Sushant Singh Rajput played his character, now unfortunately dead in controversial circumstances.
He won the ICC ODI player of the year award in 2008 and 2009, the first player to win it twice.
He won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2007, the Padma Shri in 2009 and Padhma Bhushan in 2018.
He has been named eight times in the ICC World ODI XI teams, five times s captain.
The Indian territorial army conferred the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel to Dhoni on November 1, 2011.
