In a surprise move, India’s skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni resigned as India’s limited-overs format captain’s post on Wednesday. He was forced to take the decision due to his prolonged absence from competitive cricket.
NEWS ALERT – Mahendra Singh #Dhoni steps down as #Captain of #TeamIndia. He will be available for selection for ODIs & T20Is vs England pic.twitter.com/2xM0eisdjq
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 4, 2017
It is likely that Virat Kohli will take over this role for the interim period. BCCI said in a statement that MS Dhoni however has not retired and would still be available for selection as wicket keeper-batsman for the upcoming ODI series against England, which begins in Pune on 15 January.
The senior national selectors panel will pick up the squad at the BCCI’s headquarters in Mumbai on January 6 to finalise the squad against England for the ODI and T20 series. He was leading the Indian team in ODIs and T20 ever since he retired from Test cricket in between the series against Australia on December 30, 2014.
On Wednesday night, exactly at 8.55 pm, through the press-release, the BCCI said a statement that the cricket world got to know that India’s greatest limited-overs’ skipper had decided to step down from his leadership role.
.@msdhoni #captain pic.twitter.com/8IFLI8geRE
— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) January 4, 2017
MS Dhoni has informed the BCCI, that he wishes to give up as the skipper of the Indian Cricket Team from T20 Internationals and One Day Internationals formats of the game. He will be available for the selection for upcoming Paytm T20I Trophy and Paytm One Day Trophy against England and the same has been carried to the Senior Selection Committee.
Commenting on the development, “On behalf of every Indian cricket fan and the BCCI, I would like to thank MS Dhoni for his outstanding contribution as the captain of the Indian team across all formats.” said BCCI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rahul Johri.
https://twitter.com/itsSSR/status/816675292005748737
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to stand down was entirely unexpected but as he retires, the country feels sad about the decision. After Ricky Ponting (230 matches, 165 victories) and Stephen Fleming (218 matches, 98 victories) Mahendra Singh Dhoni has played the third highest number of ODIs as team-leader (played 283 ODIs and 199 ODI appearances as captain 110 of them victories.) of the Indian cricket team. No other captain has led his team in Twenty20, Tests, ODIs international matches (331) than Dhoni. Under his captaincy, India won 41 matches and lost 28 out of 72 T20Is, the next most successful Twenty20 captain in Darren Sammy, with just 27 victories.
As captain, in 60 Tests Dhoni has scored 3454 runs at an average of 40.63. In ODI format, he has scored 6633 runs at an average of 53.92, which is higher than his overall ODI average. In T20s, he has scored 1112 runs at an average of 37.06. He has five centuries as skipper in Tests and six in ODIs.
Under MS Dhoni’s leadership India have won the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup, 2010 Asia Cup, 2011 ICC ODI World Cup, 2013 Champions Trophy and let the team into the semi-finals of the ICC World Cup in 2015. He reached the top of the Test rankings in 2009.
Regarding captain cool’s decision, India’s Test skipper Virat Kohli is likely to take over captaincy of the limited overs team.It is unclear why Dhoni took the decision at a time when BCCI is facing massive legal challenge, what made him announce his decision to relinquish captaincy all of a sudden?
