Dhoni’s leadership will be difficult to match

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s most successful captain announced his retirement from international cricket on Saturday with a cryptic post on Social Media. Dhoni led to  Team India to T20 World Cup victory in 2007 and ODI world cup win in 2011. Celebrities from B-Town and many politicians posted on Social Media to bid him goodbye and even shared their fond memories with the former Indian skipper. Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh shared a series of old photos with Dhoni and reminisced the time when he was just 22 and worked on a project just to be in Dhoni’s presence.

Since Dhoni announced retirement from international cricket, social media has been trending with only one name and messages from his fans have been flooding facebook,twitter,instagram platforms. Dhoni’s story had already been described in his biopic MS Dhoni: The Untold Story and his rise to the top after so much struggle is an inspiration for many youngsters. He is famous as one of the best finishers of the game and also for his very quick stumping. He also is known for being cool and calm even in high pressure situations and being the mastermind behind Team India’s victory in many important matches.

While fans may not see Dhoni play again in the Indian blue jersey, he will still be seen playing for Chennai Super Kings when Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) begins from September 19th in United Arab Emirates. Dhoni has led CSK to three titles so far and his fans would be hoping for a fourth one this time. The defending champions Mumbai Indians, led by Rohit Sharma, will face off Dhoni’s CSK in the inaugural game of IPL 2020. Even Rohit Sharma had a very special message for Dhoni on his retirement.

But now with Dhoni not going to Represent Team India, he will have a lot of time to focus on his other passions, one of those being his love for bikes. Dhoni’s fans know that has his garage is full of different bikes including Harley-Davidson. Dhoni also has a large collection of cars that includes Hummer H2, GMC Sierra pick-up truck, Porsche Boxter, Ferrari 500 GTO, Audi Q7, Mahindra Scorpio, and even a rare Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Series I.

But this decision was always coming as Dhoni was out of Indian team for majority of the time in last few years and his batting was not that explosive as it used to be. He used to take a lot of time to get set and played a lot of dot balls earlier in his innings which used to put pressure on other batsman.  With age also not on his side, selectors also were trying to groom other players like Rishabh Pant over the last few years to take Dhoni’s place in Indian side.

Dhoni is the first Indian captain who put a lot of stress on fitness and considered it as important as batting and bowling skills. He led by example in that department and never had room for those who lagged in running between the wickets and fielding. His leadership qualities have been something which will be hard to match, especially in the shorter format of the game. Even many corporates give his example when it comes to leadership skills.

Dhoni’s played his last ODI against New Zealand during the 2019 World Cup and  finished with 10,773 runs at an average of 50.57 in ODIs. In T20Is, Dhoni played 98 games, scoring over 1617 runs with a very good average of 37.61. He also led India to the big win in the inaugural T20 WC in 2007. In 90 Tests, he scored 4876 runs at an average of 38.09 and his highest score is 224.

With 634 catches and 195 stumpings making the total dismissals to 829, Dhoni finishes third on the list of wicket-keepers with most dismissals, only behind Mark Boucher (998) and Adam Gilchrist (905).