Passing on the baton

After a shocker to his fans by announcing to quit captaincy of International one-day and later followed by relinquishing stewardship of T20 matches, it is heartening that MS Dhoni would continue as an international cricketer playing under another talented player Virat Kohli, who, by all accounts, will be captain in all forms of the game in future.

Virat Kohli's record in Tests Cricket is outstanding and now he will have Dhoni to lean on even in limited-over matches as he prepares to skipper the country in the next one-day World Cup . With the responsibility of leading the side no longer on his broad shoulders, Dhoni's batting prowess, which is considerable, would be watched with interest as also would his skills as ‘finisher' and as wicket-keeper par excellence. It is basically not that easy accepting to play under someone else, without ego-hurting inside that marks out Dhoni as special. This equanimity is what defined his career all through.

Besides leading India to win the T20 World Cup in 2007 and the 2011 One-Day International (ODI) World Cup in 2011, India under Dhoni was at the top of the pool in Test rankings across the world for as many as 18 months. He also won the Champions Trophy for the country in 2013. Of the 199 ODIs that Dhoni captained during his career, he won 110 with a win percentage of 59.57. In T20s as captain, his win percentage was 59.28 with 41 wins and 28 losses with two no-results. While he is still at it, Dhoni is one of the three wicket-keepers to have completed the double of 9,000 runs and 300 dismissals in ODIs. With the baton of captaincy now going to Virat Kohli one can only hope that the legacy of Dhoni would be furthered. Dhoni, you always make the game exciting.