Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be missed a lot. He was such a great cricketer. He has been the most successful skipper, wonderful wicketkeeper and an incredible match finisher. Who will not miss a player who has his imprint on Indian cricket and who groomed Team India?
However, it is the right of the player to announce his retirement from international cricket. This decision solely depends on the individual. Dhoni has enjoyed cricket during his long association with this game. If a player like him decides that he would no longer play cricket, it is his call and we have to respect it.
It goes without saying that the world will miss such a big and great player. He fulfilled all the responsibilities assigned to him with perfect ability. When he was given the responsibility of the team as a skipper he led it to three big ICC tournaments. He always made his presence felt. He led India to victory in the inaugural edition of World T20 in 2007, followed it with an ODI World Cup triumph in 2011 and then became the only captain to lift all three ICC tournaments by leading India to the Champions Trophy title in 2013.
Under his leadership, India lifted the World Cup in 2011 after a gap of 28 years, with Dhoni himself hitting the winning shot, proving himself to be a fine finisher of the match. It was under his captaincy that Team India became number 1 in the Test arena.
Retirement of all the big players is an affair that causes bad feelings. When great players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly announced their retirement, their fans were left with a broken heart. All these cricketers served the nation with superb performances. The same feeling follows Dhoni’s announcement to retire. But what gives us relief is that his fans will be able to see him play in the IPL.
Dhoni used to be quite active on the field. He used to guide bowlers quite well. He continued to regularly interact with bowlers about weaknesses of batsmen even when he was not skipper of the team. Yajuvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravind Jadeja got tremendous benefit from the guidance given by Dhoni. His experience helped bowlers a lot in deciding when and where to bowl to put batsmen in trouble and dismiss them. He not only groomed Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma but the entire team. It goes to the credit of his leadership quality that players like Sachin, Zaheer, Virender Sehwag, Bhajji and Yuvraj gave fantastic performances to the extent of making India champion on many occasions.
When Dhoni was selected in Team India he sharpened his wicket-keeping skills. There is a huge difference between domestic and international cricket. Everybody toils after having a chance to play at international level. Giving good performance by improving upon your skill does matter. Dhoni improved upon his game a lot. Mostly, Dhoni played at number 6 and number 7. These positions are difficult and challenging to play at. But Dhoni proved to be the hardest hitter in these positions. Several times he scripted victory while playing at these positions and, that too, with good partnership with the lower-order batsmen. At one point of time, Dhoni was the best finisher of the world. Team India will definitely miss his finishing skill.
As far as his successor is concerned, Rishabh Pant is top-most in the reckoning. His batting has been terrific. He has improved his wicketkeeping a lot. He should learn from Dhoni and improve his performance. He has talent and there are certain areas where he can improve his performance with his experience.
Coming back to Dhoni, he is a different sort of cricketer. He is quite obsessed with the game when he is on the ground. But he always spares time for his family too. He makes it a point to pursue his hobbies. He also took care of his responsibilities for the companies and products which he endorsed. The writer is a former wicketkeeper of Indian cricket team. He has played 49 Tests and 94 ODIs for India