CHENNAI: Throughout his career, M S Dhoni had demonstrated a grand sense of occasion, be it while letting Sourav Ganguly marshal the team for the last 15 minutes in his final Test or wrapping up a memorable World Cup triumph with his trademark helicopter shot.
But the announcement of his retirement from Test cricket was not so grand. It was more similar to the diminishing timing of his strokes in the game’s longest format.
So the news came, unexpected as it was, a few minutes after his post-match press conference in Melbourne on Tuesday, through the BCCI’s Twitter feed. Later, BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel issued a release confirming the news.
According to sources, the decision was taken soon after the match, in which Dhoni played a vital role in staving off a last-session collapse. It took the cricketing fraternity by surprise. But Patel maintained it was not a decision taken in haste.
“MS is a very practical man. He called up immediately after the Test and told me that he wanted to retire from Test cricket. I asked him whether he was injured or not. But he just calmly told me that he wanted to quit Test cricket for good. He is an Indian captain and a distinguished cricketer. This was his personal choice and I needed to respect that,” Patel said.
However, the timing of the retirement, with one more match remaining in the series, has sparked debate. Some reckon it was unprofessional to have left the team before the completion of the series.
But former skipper Sunil Gavaskar defended Dhoni by saying, “In a captain's life, sometimes the burden gets too heavy. This Test match was like that. There are times when you try everything and nothing works. And probably that time had come for Dhoni.”
After a barren run of 13 defeats and just one win in 17 Tests outside Asia since the England tour of 2011, Dhoni’s decision may well be justified. He was not only taking the moral responsibility for the defeats, but also heeding to the toll that leading India in all three formats of the game had taken on his mind and body.
Alas, he will hang up his white flannels without the formality of a last hurrah. Then again, there always was a part of Dhoni that flouted conventions.