Ranjit Mahanti
MAHENDRA Singh Dhoni, one of India’s greatest Test Captains under whose leadership India became the No. 1 team in the Test Rankings has decided to retire from Test Cricket. Virat Kohli will captain India in the fourth and final Test against Australia in Sydney from January 6, 2015.
On Tuesday, the decision comes after India drew the third Test in Melbourne. Dhoni has chosen to retire from Tests with immediate effect in order to concentrate on ODIs and T20 formats.
According to BCCI statement, “One of India’s greatest Test captains has decided to retire from Test cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of cricket.”
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.
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.
With the bat, Dhoni 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).