Dhoni, Raina retire from international cricket

India’s most iconic captain MS Dhoni aka ‘Captain Cool’ and batman Suresh Raina have announced retirement from international cricket on Saturday.

He made the new public via Instagram post which reads: “Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. from 1929 hrs consider me as Retired (sic)."

Moments later, all-rounder Suresh Raina also announced his retirement from international through an Instagram post.

“It was nothing but lovely playing with you, MS Dhoni. With my heart full of pride, I choose to join you in this journey. Thank you India,” said Raina.

The 39-year-old wicketkeeper played 90 Tests, 350 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 98 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) for his country while scoring 4876 runs, 10773 runs and 1617 runs respectively in each format.

Though the post did not mention the formats he is retiring from, Dhoni is expected to play in the upcoming PL 2020 in the UAE as he was spotted earlier today arriving in Chennai for Chennai Super Kings' training camp before they fly out.

The former Indian skipper had already hanged up his gloves in longest format of the game in 2014 and handed over captaincy responsibilities of ODI and T20I to Virat Kohli in January 2017.

Under Dhoni’s 16-year international career, India had enjoyed the success by winning World T20 in 2007, World Cup in 2011 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

Dhoni's last ODI was his 350th for India, wherein he finished with a fighting 72-ball 50 against New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup which proved insufficient in the end.

Dhoni, who finished with 10,773 runs at an average of 50.57 in ODIs, is the fifth Indian to surpass the 10k-run mark in the 50-over format. The wicketkeeper-batsman also has 229 ODI sixes - the most for an Indian batsman.

As a captain, he won 55 percent of the 200 games (110 wins, 74 defeats, 5 tied, 11 NR). His 200th ODI captaincy assignment came in the Asia Cup 2018 encounter against Afghanistan after Rohit Sharma - the designated skipper for that tournament - was rested for the game, which eventually ended in a tie.

Besides being the captain cool for India, Dhoni showed cat like reflexes behind the stumps and earned the reputation of being one of the finest stumpers in the world in the last few years.

With 829 dismissals across the three formats in international cricket (634 catches, 195 stumpings), Dhoni finishes third on the list of wicketkeepers with most dismissals, only behind Mark Boucher (998) and Adam Gilchrist (905).

Meanwhile, Raina has been one of the potent middle-order batsmen and one of the finest fielders to have played for the Men in Blue.

In 226 ODIs outing, he scored 5616 runs at an average of 35.31 with five centuries and 36 half-centuries to his name.

In T20Is, the left-hander played 78 matches while scoring 1605 runs with one ton and five half-centuries as he remains one of the few to have notched a century in all formats of the game.

Like Dhoni, Raina will also continue to take the field for Chennai Super Kings in Indian Premier League and will be seen playing for the three-time IPL winners in the 13th edition of the tournament starting September 19 in the UAE.