On 15th August 2020, when entire India was celebrating Independence Day, former successful Indian captain — MS Dhoni announced his retirement from the international cricket.
MS Dhoni made his international debut on 23rd December 2004 during the Chattogram ODI against Bangladesh. Though he got a horrific start with a golden duck (run-out), soon he started to show his true class and never looked back again.
Dhoni was not only a successful Indian batsman or Indian wicket-keeper, but he was also a successful Indian captain. Under his leadership, Indian achieved huge success in international cricket, including winning the ICC World T20 2007, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, ICC Champions Trophy 2013 etc.
During his international career, Dhoni played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20Is. His last international match was during the semi-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 (against New Zealand at Manchester) on 10th July 2019.
Here we are talking about the Indian cricketers who made international debut before MS Dhoni but haven’t retired from the international cricket yet
Harbhajan Singh
The 40-year-old veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh made his international debut in March 1998. It was the 1998 Bengaluru Test against Australia when Harbhajan made his international debut. In less than a month, he made his ODI debut during the Sharjah ODI against New Zealand. He made T20I debut with MS Dhoni during India’s first T20I match (against South Africa at Johannesburg on 1st December 2006).
Harbhajan played for the Indian team last time in March 2016 during the Asia Cup T20 2016 (against UAE at Dhaka on 3rd March 2016). He played 103 Tests, 236 ODIs and 28 T20Is, where the off-spinner took 417 Test wickets, 269 ODI wickets and 25 T20I wickets. He is the second-most wicket-taker for India in the international cricket history.
Harbhajan was also a useful lower-order batsman who scored 2224 Test runs, 1237 ODI runs and 108 T20I runs.
At present, Harbhhajan only plays in the IPL for MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK). We will see them together in the upcoming IPL 2020. However, the veteran off-spinner hasn’t officially retired from international cricket yet.
Once, Harbhajan was one of the crucial regular members of the Indian team. He was a regular member during Dhoni-led India’s victory in the ICC World T20 2007 and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.