On This Day In 2020: MS Dhoni Brought Down The Curtains On His Glorious International Career

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On this day, August 15 - in 2020, legendary captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni stunned the world by announcing his retirement from international cricket, bringing down curtains on his glorious career for Team India.

MS Dhoni, who captained the teams that won three ICC titles - ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2007, the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in 2011 and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013, announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket on August 15 in 2020.

The successful skipper, who had also captained the Indian team to the Test mace, had announced his retirement from the longest format in December 2014 and last played for India in the heartbreaking ICC World Cup semi-final loss against New Zealand in July 2019.

It was another one of those gritty knocks which Dhoni created a career out of, but it wasn't enough to take India home on that fateful day, when the former skipper fell agonizingly short of his crease to be dismissed run out.

A little over a year later, Dhoni took to Instagram, sharing a video and captioned the post, "Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. from 1929 hrs consider me as Retired," announcing his retirement from international cricket.

The video had the iconic song 'Mai Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar Hu' from Amitabh Bachchan's 'Kabhie Kabhie' playing in the background. Dhoni shared his incredible journey as India team member including his run out in the last game against New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semifinal.

Dhoni played 350 ODIs with his highest score being 183 against Sri Lanka. In Tests, MSD played 90 matches scoring 4876 runs at an average of 38.09. He also remains the only captain to win all major ICC trophies (50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy).

Referred to as 'Captain Cool', Dhoni is known for his calmness and exquisite captaincy on the field as well as his swift glove work behind the stumps. His knack and cricketing intelligence has made him famous for review calls, with many calling 'Decision-Review System's' as 'Dhoni-Review System'.

While he has retired from international cricket for a good three years now, the wicketkeeper-batter still plays for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. He led CSK to a record-equalling fifth IPL title in 2023, but has kept suspense on his future in the sport, hinting of possibly playing again in 2024.

After IPL 2023, Dhoni, who turned 42 last month on July 7, had announced that he wanted to lead CSK for one more season as a gift to the fans for showing their love towards him. But had hinted any call will be taken in the coming months with just enough time to recover from his knee surgery.