MS Dhoni's retirement - a fallacious decision or a faultless one?

Good Bye Dhoni

The ‘Captain Cool’ has made his mind to quit Test cricket. The announcement of Dhoni’s retirement came as a shocker to Indian cricket adherents, just few minutes after the end of 3rd Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy(India in Australia). This gathered disparate reactions from the fanatics, stating this decision from a quintessential to a queer or even a fallacious one.

The pressure mounts on a captain when his team displays below par performances on a stretch. Citing the recent tours the Indian team had, apparently this situation applies to it. Under such situations, after a lot of scrutiny the position of captaincy will become questionable and uncertain.

The player will be put under pressure, and sometimes coaxed, coerced and exiled from his captaincy at the end. Ultimately if the personal performance of the player too were diminishing, then it will be strenuous for him to gain back a place in the team, whoever the player maybe and whatever the player had proffered.

But that’s the Justice and paves for the Goodness of team. 1st sentence of this Para applies in Dhoni’s case to a certain extent, everything else said above is inapt to Dhoni. As he put a dot outright with the sudden ‘Retirement scenario’.

“Retirement has nothing to do with a streak of substandard performance. It is up to every personal’s credence in his abilities and what he can yield with that.”

Earlier retirements we have seen will be utterly out of aging and when the concerned player feels he has nothing else to offer for the sport with time moving ahead. For a test cricketer, I don’t see 33 as an age in the vicinity of retirement, the latter being a possibility with Dhoni feeling complacent. Considering all facts and facets, this gut feel is innate, M.S.D style.

Surely a myriad of fanatics of the game of cricket will miss M.S.D in whites, for whom this abrupt decision might pose like a hasty one. And there are people who feel getting rid of Dhoni will incept a new phase of Indian cricket, which would, hopefully, turn into a successful one.

Why we will miss Dhoni in whites

M.S.Dhoni Test stats

• Sticking to the basics, the numbers will speak for themselves (see Dhoni’s career stats in the pic on right side).
• Most Test runs scored and Most wins acquired by an Indian captain.
• 294 Dismissals – 5th highest among all wicket keepers and the most by an Indian so far.
• Nobody can pretermit his 148 vs Pak(Faisalabad,2006), the expeditious 224 vs Aus(Chennai,2013), or the resistive 71 vs Eng(Old Trafford,2014) and few more such brilliant innings.
• A player whose career spanning for 9 years, appearing in 90 test matches, often playing at number 7, a default wicket-keeper and a leader. For all these roles held by a single player, irrespective of the fans, foremost his teammates will miss him.
• Our Childhood Heroes Sourav, Dravid, Kumble, Sachin and Laxman left the Indian team in succession. And with the performance of Sehwag, Yuvi, Gambhir, Zaheer deteriorating, costing them a place in the Indian squad, Dhoni had been the only residue of the nostalgic past and a glimpse of experience in the current Indian squad with a bunch of youngsters.
• After all, He had been a Custodian for Indian team in tests for around 6 years since he took off from Anil Kumble in 2008, with no other player had been in a suitable ready state to take the captaincy.

The above reasons are plausible to manifest why Dhoni will be missed. And in my outlook, this miss will be for a Greater Good.

A few tenable points that could prove this decision to be veracious

• First and foremost, this is a sheer decision out of his instincts. He felt that this team doesn’t need his services anymore.
• He had been a good performer in test cricket at times, but lacked the perseverance and the technical niche that would have taken him to the next level.
• Safe hands behind the wickets and the best in the Indian cricket history, I am dubious whether he could have picked the couple of catches that Haddin caught with a plummet in the 3rd test of the current Ind-Aus series ( I have to be more pedantic here)
• Being a known Pinch hitter, he is not the player by the books one who could play a typical square cut as Rahul Dravid or a sumptuous straight drive like Sachin or an elegant on-drive like Laxman. He has his own styles, which I believe didn’t went well with the longer format of the game.
• I would like to phrase a Hackneyed saying here, “Under hostile conditions, overseas, he consistently failed to perform.” Yes, that is true.
• M.S. Dhoni, once said “If I see a glimpse of future in Indian test team, I will retire”. Now as he retired, we can presume that he spotted something with this young team.

Clearly we can say that this is for the betterment of the team. A selfless, valiant and an unerring decision.

Thanks Dhoni for the services you rendered as an Indian Test cricketer. You will be missed. All being said, we can still see Dhoni in the days to come in limited overs, in which he is an expert.

We receive this decision with acclamation.