The day MS Dhoni set down his Test gloves to mark quiet farewell

Aakash Saini

MS Dhoni [Source: @AaravMsd_07/x]MS Dhoni [Source: @AaravMsd_07/x]

Few captains have managed to reshape India’s relationship with Test cricket on overseas tours the way MS Dhoni did. If Sourav Ganguly set the trend of competing away from home, Dhoni carried that same legacy forward with a historic series win in New Zealand and a fighting result in South Africa.

A veteran of 90 Tests, including 60 as the captain of the Indian cricket team, the legendary wicketkeeper-batter quietly decided to call it quits from the game’s purest format following a drawn result against familiar nemesis Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) exactly on this day, 11 years ago.

Recollecting MS Dhoni’s last stand in Tests for India

Back on December 30, 2014; then Indian captain MS Dhoni stunned the cricketing world by drawing curtains on his illustrious Test career. The legendary wicketkeeper-batter announced his retirement from red-ball cricket following India’s fighting drawn Test against Australia at the MCG, i.e., the third match of the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series.

In his farewell innings, MS Dhoni shrugged off 39 deliveries to score 24 unbeaten runs, forged a 32-run stand with Ravichandran Ashwin to survive the remaining 11 overs in the match on a thrilling Day 5.

By the end of it all, MS Dhoni had aggregated 4,876 Test runs at an astonishing batting average of 38.09 with six hundreds and 33 half-centuries to his name. The then 33-year-old also retired as India’s most successful Test skipper at the time, having registered 27 wins in 60 matches, including some famous ones in New Zealand and South Africa; as well as a 4-0 hammering of Australia at home.

Despite boasting a staggering Test career, there were no final bows, a lap of honour or any grand declarations for MS Dhoni, as the seasoned pro simply decided to walk away from the format on his own terms. In retrospect, Dhoni ended up concluding his Test journey in a manner which his leadership always stood for: substance over style.