Xtra Time Web Desk: Team India Head Coach Ravi Shastri finally broke his silence on former India captain MS Dhoni’s sudden retirement from test cricket. According to Shastri, it was a ‘brave and selfless’ decision taken by Dhoni midway through the tour of Australia in 2014 with just 90 Tests under his belt and not dragging himself to 100 Test matches.
“MS was India’s, in fact the world’s, biggest player then with three ICC trophies under his belt, including two World Cups, and some very impressive silverware from the IPL. His form was good, and he was just 10 matches shy of completing 100 Tests,” wrote Shastri in his book “Stargazing: The players in my life” that was released recently.
“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 he 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 added that he tried to convince Dhoni to mull over his decision again. But the firmness in Dhoni’s tone stopped him from pushing the matter
“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 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 termed Dhoni as one of the three most impactful Indian cricketers besides Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev.
“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. Yet, this hardly looked likely when he first came on the international scene.”