Former India coach Ravi Shastri revealed how MS Dhoni casually informed the team about his retirement from Test Cricket. On December 30, 2014, MS Dhoni shocked everyone as he announced his retirement from the longest form of the game after India could manage to draw the Boxing Day Test against Australia.
In an interview with Star Sports Ravi Shastri, who was the Team Director in that tour, revealed all the developments of the day. Shastri also believes that Dhoni would have anticipated that Kohli was ready for the leadership role.
“He knew who was the next leader in the line. He was just waiting for the opportune time to make that announcement because he knew how much his body could take. He wanted to prolong his white-ball career. When his body tells him it’s enough, it’s enough. There’s no second thought with MS,” Shastri spoke to Star Sports.
Notable that earlier Virat Kohli captained India in the first test of the series as Dhoni was recovering from a thumb injury. Though India lost that game at Adelaide, Virat Kohli led from the front by scoring centuries in both innings of his captaincy debut.
“It came as a huge surprise in Melbourne when he said ‘I am finishing with Test cricket’. In fact, he just casually walked up to me and said, ‘Ravi Bhai, I need to speak to the boys’. I said ‘sure’. So I thought he would say something; we’d drawn a great game, batted last day. To draw that match was tremendous stuff.” he recollected his memories from the day.
“And he comes out, bolt out of the blue, ‘I am done with Test cricket’. And I just saw the faces around the dressing room, they were in a state of shock, most of them. But that’s MS (Dhoni) for you,” he added further.
The wicketkeeper batter finished his 90-match Test career with 4876 runs and also 294 dismissals behind the stumps. He made his Test against Sri Lanka at Delhi in 2005. He also led India in 60 of those matches.
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