"You must have held those tears" - A proud Sakshi Dhoni after MS Dhoni calls it a day for Team India

The former Indian captain MS Dhoni took the cricketing world by storm as he hanged his boots to draw curtains on his golden international career of 16 years on August 15 (Saturday). The retirement of Dhoni marks the end of an era for Indian cricket.

The world’s most renowned limited-overs captain silently walked away from the gentleman’s game without any farewell match, press conference or intimation. The 39-year-old bid adieu to international cricket by sharing an emotional video showing glimpses of his entire cricket journey with the background song set as ‘Mai pal do pal ka shayar hu’.

Apart from cementing himself as one of most prominent batsman and captain, Dhoni also redefined wicketkeeping skills and earned the reputation of being one of the finest stumpers in the world. With 829 dismissals across the three formats in international cricket (634 catches, 195 stumpings), Dhoni finishes third on the list of wicket-keepers with most dismissals, only behind Mark Boucher (998) and Adam Gilchrist (905).

Sakshi Dhoni pays tribute to MS Dhoni

As soon as the news broke out on social media, millions of fans and cricketers from around the world took to social media to pay tribute to a shrewd leader, magnificent wicketkeeper and the finest finisher. The who’s who of the cricket world penned down emotional send-offs for the former Indian captain and wished him all the best for his future endeavours.

The wife of the Ranchi stalwart, Sakshi Dhoni took to Instagram to congratulate her husband for a fabulous career and his stunning achievements.

Sakshi wrote, “You should be proud of what you have achieved. Congratulations on giving your best to the game. I am proud of your accomplishments and the person you are. I am sure you must have held those tears to say goodbye to your passion. Wishing you health, happiness and wonderful things ahead,”

View this post on Instagram

You should be proud of what you have achieved. Congratulations on giving your best to the game. I am proud of your accomplishments and the person you are! I am sure you must have held those tears to say goodbye to your passion. Wishing you health, happiness and wonderful things ahead! #thankyoumsd #proud “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou

A post shared by Sakshi Singh Dhoni (@sakshisingh_r) on Aug 15, 2020 at 10:51am PDT

In a brilliant career that started on December 23, 2004 and ended on August 15, 2019, Dhoni represented India in 538 matches scoring 17,266 runs, 16 hundreds, 108 fifties, 359 sixes and 829 dismissals across all the three formats of the game. He remains the only captain in the world to have clinched all the three ICC trophies; 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy.