Dhoni offers to quit ODI captaincy
After India's shock defeat to Bangladesh in the ongoing ODI series, MS Dhoni has offered to resign from captaincy. Many former players have stood behind Dhoni and opposed this move. During the post match press conference, he said that he "would be willing to step down as captain if it guaranteed success for Indian cricket".
England completed a 4-0 series win over India at Oval. With this loss, India also lost its World No. 1 test ranking to England. After 1974, it was England's first whitewash win over India. MS Dhoni came under fire for his 'defensive' captaincy throughout the series. Dhoni asked his players not to panic after losing the No. 1 ranking to England.
With another 4-0 whitewash, India had lost 8 consecutive test matches on foreign soil. Batting failure and Dhoni's ineffective captaincy were being flamed for this humiliation. India had thus failed to win a test series in Australia in its last 10 tours. Demands for Dhoni's ouster further grew after the disappointing result.
After a series of humiliating results, MS Dhoni offered to step down as the test captain, 'if there is a better replacement'. He earlier hinted that he might quit the tests soon to concentrate on the 2015 World Cup. Dhoni faced a one match ban in the last test due to the team's slow over rate.
Failure in the New Zealand tour further escalated demands of a change in leadership of the team. The 1-0 series defeat is India's 4th consecutive away series loss after losses against England, Australia and South Africa. In the last 12 foreign tests, India has faced defeat in 10, while the other two tests ended in a draw.
Following another foreign series defeat in Australia, Dhoni announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect. He said he wanted to concentrate on 50 and 20 overs cricket from now on. Virat Kohli was to lead the team in the one remaining test of the series. Dhoni took the team to the top of Tests Rankings in 2009.
MS Dhoni is the first non-Australian captain to win 100 ODIs and the first Indian captain to do so. He is also the most successful Indian Test skipper till date.
MS Dhoni was the only Indian to feature in the recent Forbes' list of the world's richest athletes. With an earning of $31 million, he was ranked 23rd.
