Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s cricket career ends without fuss or frills. Two years earlier,in Melbourne, he gave no idea that as he said goodbye to limited overs cricket, he had also in mind the thought of retiring from test cricket. Everyone expected him to lead in the ICC Champions Trophy this summer. But Dhoni did not want to drag his feet. He was India’s best cricketer to combine athletic skills with the subtleties of the game of uncertainity.He has been likened to Kapil Dev, who was called the best all- rounder of the twentieth century by Wisden.He was known as Captain Cool, an admirable quality for a skipper.But of course, with the passing of time, he was losing his shine. His leadership also lost its freshness. If India lost, he always made himself responsible. But his leadership in one-dayers remains unparalleled.
Here is a record of Dhoni’s ODI successes -9100 runs at an average of 58.89 runs with nine centuries and sixty one half centuries.He also bagged 359 wickets.However, he did not believe in numbers. For instance, he stopped one short of 200 ODIs as captain. Under him, India was no.1 in 2007.He won the World T20 in 2007, the 2001 World Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. Dhoni’s main contribution to cricket was that he encouraged players in the heartland to graduate to test cricket. And it is to his credit that Virat Kohli, the hero of Indian cricket today, made himself a true successor to Dhoni.