‘We did not know until the final day’: Ishant Sharma reveals what MS Dhoni informed him earlier than Test retirement

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Ishant Sharma revealed his dialog with MS Dhoni earlier than the latter’s retirement from Test cricket in 2014.
Former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni shocked the cricket fraternity when he introduced a sudden retirement from Test cricket, merely minutes after India’s match towards Australia in December 2014. 

Dhoni represented India in 90 Tests, scoring 4,876 runs at a mean of 38.1.

In a dialog with Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s premier quick bowler in Tests Ishant Sharma has now revealed that even the gamers within the dressing room did not know that Dhoni would retire after the sport.

Talking on the eve of the third Test towards England in Motera (which might even be Ishant’s a centesimal Test), the Indian pacer talked about his dialog with Dhoni previous to his retirement within the recreation.

“I felt very bad, because as you know, I had taken a few injections during that Test because of the pain in my knee. We didn’t know he was going to retire because we were playing the Test,” Ishant informed Ashwin.

“When it was almost Tea on day 4, and I think Australia were about to declare, I told Mahi bhai, “I am unable to take anymore injections.” And he said it was alright, don’t bowl now. Then, after some time, he said something like, ‘Lambu, you have deserted me in this Test match’. I asked, “what does that imply?”

“He said, ‘You’ve deserted me in my last Test match’. I said, “Mahi bhai, if I had identified, I might have undoubtedly bowled.’ So I believe it was a really touching story. Even I did not know until the final day he was retiring.”

Ashwin then identified that nobody anticipated Dhoni to retire as he was not removed from reaching 100 Tests.

“Even I didn’t expect it because Mahi bhai had 93 or 94 Tests (90 Tests) until then,” Ashwin stated, to which Ishant insisted that the previous Indian captain was “not a man of numbers.”

“Actually you know him, he is not a man of numbers. So, he always thinks about what’s good for the team. He told me (during 2014 tour of England), “Reaching the milestone of 100 Tests will not be a giant deal for me,” Ishant stated.

“He was thinking about how to groom (Wriddhiman) Saha as we had a long season coming up in India. So, I think he retired because of that.”