The 2019 World Cup loss against New Zealand will be remembered for more things than one in India cricket history, more so due to the fact that it turned out to be former captain MS Dhoni’s last international match in India colours. Dhoni was run-out was scoring a ‘back-to-the-wall’ in the last four tie against Kane Williamson’s Kiwis and with that ended all Indian hopes. Team India head coach Ravi Shastri remembers ‘a tear in his eye’ as ‘Captain Cool’ Dhoni walked back to the pavilion that day.
“Nothing frazzled Dhoni. ‘Captain Cool’ is something of a cliché now, but in many ways, still the most apt description for MS. The only time I saw a flicker of disappointment on his face was after we lost the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup to New Zealand. I could almost see a tear in his eye, of self-admonishment, that he should have been run out when so much depended on him,” Shastri wrote in his new book ‘Stargazing: The players in my life’.
Dhoni ended his international career with 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20Is under his belt but landmarks never mattered to him. He remains the only skipper to win T20 World Cup, 50-over World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy during his tenure.
The Chennai Super Kings skipper announced his international retirement out of the blue on August 15, 2020. His Test retirement was equally shocking as his international one. “Shortly after the third Test at Melbourne in 2014 was drawn, Mahendra Singh Dhoni made his decision to retire from Test cricket know in the dressing room. The silence could have been cut with a knife. Not a single player so much as shuffled their feet for a while. My jaw hit the floor,” Shastri writes, remembering the day of Dhoni’s Test retirement.
“Still one of the top-three fittest players on the team, he would have the opportunity to boost his career stats if nothing else. True, he wasn’t getting any younger, but hinge wasn’t that old either! His decision just didn’t make sense,” Shastri wrote further of MSD’s retirement plans.
The former India all-rounder, who has written about quite a few players in his book, added that he tried to convince the former India wicketkeeper to mull over his decision again. However, he feels Dhoni took the right decision by sticking to it.
Shastri was Indian team’s director cricket when Dhoni decided to hang his boots. “All cricketers say landmarks and milestones don’t matter, but some do. I approached the issue in a roundabout way, probing for an opening to make him change his mind. But there was a firmness to MS’s tone that stopped me from pushing the matter any further. Looking back, I think his decision was correct; also brave and selfless,” Shastri wrote. “Giving up on the most powerful position in cricket in the world, in a way, couldn't have been easy.”
Shastri put Dhoni in the same league as Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev when it came to his impact on Indian cricket. “MS’s impact on Indian cricket has been enormous. As a player, he is in the same league as Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev where multi-format excellence is concerned,” Shastri felt.
Team India head coach signs off by saying that Dhoni remains a massive inspiration for youngsters in India, especially from the ‘hinterland’. No wonder that BCCI have decided to appoint his as a mentor of the Indian team at the T20 World Cup next month.
