Former Indian skipper and one of the all-time great finishers of the limited-overs game, MS Dhoni retired from International cricket on August 15, 2020. He left the cricketing world in shock when he announced his retirement through a post on his Instagram handle.
The legendary wicket-keeper batsman finished his international career with 634 catches and 195 stumpings. He accumulated a staggering 10773 runs at an average of 50.58 in ODI Cricket. So when he announced he was bidding goodbye without a farewell match, it came as a shock to not just his fans, but also everybody in the CSK camp.
It took 2-3 days to realise it – Ruturaj Gaikwad
Almost ten months following the announcement, Ruturaj spoke about the situation in the CSK camp before the news came in. He said that the players were keeping up with their practice session, of which Dhoni was a part of. When asked about Dhoni’s retirement from the IPL, Ruturaj Gaikwad said,
“I don’t have any idea about that. Because I remember he announced his international retirement on 15th August last year. On that day, we were 10-12 people in Chennai practicing just before leaving Dubai. Around 6:30 pm our practice got over and at 7:00 we all, including Mahi Bhai, sat for dinner.”
“And suddenly someone told me on Instagram that Mahi Bhai had announced his retirement! There was no vibe that something like that was going to happen, no discussions, no one knew anything at all. So, you never know with him. Anything can happen,” Ruturaj Gaikwad explained.
The up-and-coming CSK opener, Ruturaj Gaikwad, who had a good IPL 2021 season before it got postponed, continued the conversation by mentioning that he didn’t dare to ask him about it.
“I couldn’t dare to ask him because we all were still grieving. It didn’t sink in immediately that we won’t see him again in international cricket or that a man of his stature has retired like this. It took 2-3 days to realize it. Not only me but for everyone present there,” Ruturaj concluded.
