Dhoni steps down as ODI, T20 captain

Country’s successful skipper springs a surprise

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to step down as India’s ODI and T20 captain came in the same dramatic fashion associated with the dashing skipper.

The announcement came through the BCCI’s twitter handle.

There was the same element of surprise to it as there had been in Dhoni’s decision to quit Test cricket altogether, which he took suddenly on the eve of a Test match in Australia in the 2014-15 season. The skipper was never the one to come up before the media and make a formal announcement of his plans. He has always routed his retirement decisions through the cricket board, a somewhat conservative manner to do it as opposed to his flamboyant style as leader, batsman and wicket-keeper. This is not to knock down his enormous contribution to Indian cricket not only in all the famous victories he notched up like in the inaugural T20 worlds, the World Cup of 2011 and the Test wins which propelled India to the No. 1 ranking for the first time back in 2009.

But it does appear he tarried a bit after carrying his team to sensational performances in the theatre of limited-overs cricket.

Dhoni has so far scored 9,110 runs in 283 ODIs at an average of 50.89 with 183 not out being his highest score.

Besides, the wicket-keeper batsman has so far made 1,112 runs from 73 T20 Internationals.