Dhoni should have announced retirement from the ground: Inzamam-ul-Haq

Lahore, Aug 17: Former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq believes that wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni should have announced his retirement from the ground.

His remark came as Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket, calling time on his 16-year-long career.

"Dhoni has millions of fans across the globe who want to see him play on the ground. In my opinion, a player of such stature, shouldn't have taken retirement while sitting at home. He should have announced retirement from the ground," Inzamam said in a video posted on his YouTube channel.

"This is the same thing, I once told Sachin Tendulkar. When you have such a big fan following, you should ideally end your journey from the ground, after all, it is this ground where you earned such respect and stardom. In my opinion, even Dhoni should have done the same then his fans would have been happier, including me, since I rate him as the best Indian skipper," he added.

Inzamam also labelled Dhoni as the best Indian skipper and credited him for developing match-winners like Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin.

"MS Dhoni is such a clever cricketer that he knew how to build players. Suresh Raina and R Ashwin are two best players, MS Dhoni produced. His level of understanding of the sport was so good that he used to pick players and then turn them into great players," Inzamam said.

"Dhoni is that player who knew how to finish the match. He is not the kind who will score a century in every match, but he built his innings in such a manner that the team finishes on the winning side," he added.

On Saturday, Dhoni had announced his retirement on Instagram. The wicket-keeper-batsman Dhoni shared a video and captioned the post, "Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout. from 1929 hrs consider me as Retired."

The video had the iconic song 'Mai Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar Hu' from Amitabh Bachchan's 'Kabhie Kabhie' playing in the background and in it, Dhoni shared his incredible journey in the Indian side including his run out in the last game against New Zealand in the World Cup 2019 semifinal.

He is among the most successful captains in world cricket. It was under his leadership that India lifted the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 after having led India to triumph in the ICC World T20 in its maiden edition of the tournament held in 2007 in South Africa.

With India winning the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 in England, Dhoni became the first and is still the only captain to date to have won all three ICC Trophies.

Unarguably the quickest man behind the wicket, Dhoni has 195 international stumpings, the most by any wicket-keeper. Dhoni played 350 ODIs with his highest score being 183 against Sri Lanka.

Also referred to as 'Captain Cool', Dhoni is known for his calmness and exquisite captaincy on the field.

In December 2014, he announced his retirement from Tests and gave a chance to the likes of Wriddhiman Saha. Dhoni called time on his Test career after playing 90 Tests, managing to score 4,876 runs at an average of 38.09.

Dhoni was slated to return to the cricket field on March 29 during the IPL's opening match between CSK and Mumbai Indians.

However, the tournament will now be played in the UAE from September 19 to November 10. He will continue to captain CSK in the IPL 2020.