OTD: MS Dhoni announced his international retirement unexpectedly

On August 15, 2020, unceremoniously, MS Dhoni announced his international retirement through a short Instagram post. With a slide of his decorative career, Dhoni took to his official Instagram account and wrote, "Thanks—thanks a lot for your love and support throughout. From 1929 hrs, consider me as retired."

The announcement came out of nowhere, just before the beginning of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) camp for IPL 2020. Dhoni left his legacy as one of the best limited-overs cricketers and arguably the best skipper of Team India in terms of winning ICC trophies. As of now, he is the only captain to lift all three ICC trophies—the 50-over World Cup, the T20 World Cup, and the Champions Trophy. During his captaincy tenure, the men in the Blue Brigade dominated the ICC rankings as well. Dhoni's retirement marked an end of a chapter.

"It is the end of an era. What a player he has been for the country and world cricket. His leadership qualities have been something that will be hard to match, especially in the shorter format of the game. His batting in one-day cricket in his early stages made the world stand up and notice his flair and sheer natural brilliance. Every good thing comes to an end, and this has been an absolutely brilliant one," said the president of BCCI, Sourav Ganguly, in a statement.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by M S Dhoni (@mahi7781)

Read More: Star Sunrisers Hyderabad player scores quickfire century in Maharaja Trophy 2025

Only numbers are not enough to define his career 

The 2019 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand in July remained as Dhoni's last assignment for India. In that match he scored 50 off 72 balls, but India could not win the match and exited from the tournament. From 2004, MS Dhoni, across the international formats, scored more than 15,000, including 16 centuries, and more than 800 dismissals as wicketkeeper.

In tests, the cricketer from Jharkhand scored 4876 with a highest score of 224. In ODIs, his run tally was 10773 in 350 games, including a highest score of 183*. In the T20Is, Dhoni played 98 games for India to score 1617 runs; 56 was his highest individual score in the format.