'Raina started crying': Axar reveals how Indian dressing room reacted to Dhoni's sudden Test retirement

It’s been more than seven years since MS Dhoni took the cricketing world by surprise by announcing his retirement from Test cricket midway through the tour of Australia and handing over the reigns of the team to Virat Kohli in the longest format.

India and Delhi Capitals left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who was part of the Indian touring party in Australia in the 2014-15 season, made some interesting revelations recently, including the fact that former India and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) all-rounder Suresh Raina starting crying.

Dhoni had announced his decision to retire from the longest format right after the third Test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the announcement of which was made through an email from the BCCI with no such mention being made during the post-match presentation or in the press conference.

“It happened on the second day of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. The atmosphere had suddenly grown silent. Ravi bhai called for a meeting and said ‘Mahi retire ho raha hai’. Raina bhai started crying and everyone had tears in their eyes.

“I was like ‘What on earth just happened?’ I wasn’t even sure what to say to Mahi bhai, this was the first time I was meeting him after all. Before I could say anything to him, he told me,’Bapu you came and took me away.’

“He later said he was joking, and hugged me and left,” Axar said in a chat with Gaurav Kapur on Breakfast With Champions on YouTube.

Dhoni brought the curtains down in his Test career after making 90 appearances in the format, having scored 4,876 runs with six centuries and 33 fifties and with 294 dismissals behind the stumps to his credit.

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At the time of his retirement, Dhoni was the most successful India Test captain with 27 wins in 60 matches, six more than what current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had managed during his reign as the leader.

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