Former India all-rounder and head coach Ravi Shastri said he himself and the dressing room was in a state of shock when MS Dhoni announced his decision to retire from Test cricket.
Dhoni made an unforeseen call to quit Tests after he led India to a heroic draw in the Boxing Day Test in 2014 in Melbourne.
During a television program, Ravi Shastri, who was India’s team manager during the 2014 Australia tour, revealed that Dhoni had come to him after the draw and told him he wanted to address the team at the dressing room and the players were in a state of shock when Dhoni said he wanted to retire from the longest format of the game.
“After addressing the press conference, Dhoni came back to the dressing room and asked to talk to the team members for 10 minutes. Nobody had any kind of idea about his address. Everybody in the dressing room including me were shocked when he said that he can’t play all the three formats any more and it’s time to take retirement from Test cricket,” said Shastri during the program.
“Nobody had any clue about his sudden decision. He never talked about it to anyone earlier. He also didn’t discuss the matter with anyone. Everybody including me was shocked with the decision,” the former Team Director added.
The Captain Cool took retirement from the longest format of the game at the age of 33, showing no signs of such a move in the lead up to the 3rd Test during India’s tour of Australia. Subsequently, star batsman Virat Kohli took over as the full-time Test captain .
However, Dhoni continued leading the Indian team in the white-ball formats of the game before giving up the leadership role in 2017.