‘In My Mind, My Last Series As Captain Was The South African One In India’, Reveals MS Dhoni
Jan 13, 2017 at 2:47 PM
Former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said the South African series in India in late 2015, was when he decided he won’t prolong his career as the skipper of India ‘s ODI and T20I format.
Speaking during the pre-match press conference ahead of first ODI versus England, MS Dhoni explained what prompted him to hung his captaincy boots after successfully serving the post for around a decade.
He was sure in his words to admit the hammering from South African batsmen in the ODI series, which India lost 3-2, made him go for a reality check.
He further added it was easy to judge why he toured Zimbabwe after that, and later he officially informed BCCI about his decision to step down as the Indian captain.
“In my mind, my last series was the South African series in India, after that it was pretty easy to judge why I went to Zimbabwe. After all that, I officially told BCCI that I won’t be captaining anymore.”
Calling Virat Kohli the best man to succeed him across formats right now, Dhoni said he doesn’t believe in split captaincy in the country’s scenario.
Further explaining the point, MS said one player, one captain leading in all three formats is crucial for the Indian cricket and that he is not ready to change his thoughts on the same, even after retiring from Tests.
In his eyes, Virat Kohli was always ready to step up and had all the traits him to take over the baton from him on the bigger stage. Talking about his surprise decision to retire during the mid-way Test series in Australia in 2014/15, Dhoni said he wanted Virat to have some time in the middle before handing him the complete captaincy.
“When Virat took over Test captaincy, I wanted him to have some time over there, and then get into full captaincy”, he said.