His retirement from Test cricket may have been thrust upon him by the burden of recent dissatisfactory performances as well as signs of disarray in his team. However, the timing is near perfect for Team India as Mahendra Singh Dhoni hands over the Test reins to his young colleague Virat Kohli, who showed in the first Test of the series itself that his approach as captain is going to be even more aggressive than his predecessor’s. As batsman, Kohli has also come on so much in tough Australian conditions that he has the potential to surpass Dhoni’s record.
Unable to bear any more the triple challenge of modern cricket — Tests, ODIs and T20 — Dhoni leaves the Test arena, avowedly in curious circumstances with the BCCI tweeting his departure after he had addressed a press conference after the Melbourne Test. His contribution is phenomenal. Dhoni scored more runs (3,454) than any other as Indian captain and won more Tests (27 of 60). He may have lost 18 Tests, only one less than “Tiger” Pataudi, but he also presided over the best period in Team India’s variable destiny, being in charge when India ascended the Test ladder of merit for the first time, in 2009.
Dhoni’s contribution is greater than the sum of its statistics. He inspired Indians to be more aggressive. His away Test record (15 defeats and six series), the worst for an Indian captain, may have convinced him the job was getting beyond him. “Captain Cool” may enjoy a rock-star lifestyle as well as a cult following, but at the batting crease Dhoni was the personification of an attacking cricketer in Tests too. We must doff our hats to the man who changed India’s image in cricket.
