As India celebrated their 73rd Independence Day, the evening stayed witness to the farewell of two of India’s finest cricketers, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina. Dhoni announced on his official Instagram handle, “consider me retired” while Raina posted, “It was nothing but lovely playing with you, @mahi7781. With my heart full of pride, I choose to join you on this journey. Thank you, India. Jai Hind!”
One hell of a night for the Indian fans, Twitter exploded in hailing the two stars. Needless to say, the netizens were extremely grieved about the departure of their favorite captain from the international canon.
A Twitter user posted an emotional message on the microblogging site, citing, “Dhoni’s career was a story of ‘turn off the TV because Sachin is out’ to ‘Dhoni is still there”.
महेंद्र सिंह धोनी का करियर ‘सचिन आउट, टीवी बंद करो’ से लेकर ‘अभी धोनी बाक़ी है’ तक का एक शानदार सफ़र रहा है।
— Bhaiyyaji (@bhaiyyajispeaks) August 15, 2020
As a matter of fact, this tweet was a perfect replica of the establishment of Dhoni’s career in Indian colors. He was introduced to the Indian field by Saurav Ganguly when he came on as an aggressive hitter in the middle.
His rip-roaring century against Pakistan was a harbinger of his imminent greatness. As time started flying by, he continued belting out one masterclass after the other, conquering one nation after another.
As the world was already losing themselves in awe of this youngster, that is when he smashed a blistering 183 against Sri Lanka announcing his arrival to the world.
With years elapsing slowly and steadily, Dhoni pushed himself down the order as he was evolving into a new breed of a batsman, a finisher. That was just the beginning of what one would call an Indian’s bid to topple Michael Bevan from the perch.
That six in 2011 final which took India beyond all cosmic boundaries of exhilaration, was also the welcoming of India’s most commanding captain in international cricket.