MS Dhoni – like he had done in 2014, silently walked away from the limelight and announced retirement from international cricket. He posted an emotional video with the Bollywood song which is also his favourite ‘Mai pal do pal ka saathi hu’ and wrote, ‘consider me retired’. The post soon went viral and left the fans emotional as well.

No wonder the decision has made his India teammates also emotional and Virat Kohli, who made his debut under his captaincy, paid a special tribute to him. He dedicated a very long message to MS Dhoni and thanked him for all he has done for India in his career.

“Every cricketer has to end his journey one day, but still when someone you’ve gotten to know so closely announces that decision, you feel the emotion much more. What you’ve done for the country will always remain in everyone’s heart.but the mutual respect and warmth I’ve received from you will always stay in mine.

“The world has seen achievements, I’ve seen the person. Thanks for everything skip. I tip my hat to you,” Kohli wrote in his tweet dedicated to his skipper.

Here’s his tweet:

Every cricketer has to end his journey one day, but still when someone you've gotten to know so closely announces that decision, you feel the emotion much more. What you've done for the country will always remain in everyone's heart…… pic.twitter.com/0CuwjwGiiS

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) August 15, 2020

but the mutual respect and warmth I've received from you will always stay in mine. The world has seen achievements, I've seen the person. Thanks for everything skip. I tip my hat to you 👏🇮🇳 @msdhoni

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) August 15, 2020

Special bonding between MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli

‘You will always be my skipper.’ These were Virat Kohli’s words while presenting a memento to MS Dhoni ahead of one of the matches. The current Indian skipper has immense respect for him and always had the veteran cricketer’s word when he was behind the wickets. He was the one who stood behind Dhoni when many criticised him during the latter part of his career. And the words in his tweet also depict the same.

He understands the fact that every cricketer has to call it quits from the highest level one day. But he knew MS Dhoni personally and must be feeling the emotion of not being able to share the field at the international level again.

As far as the 39-year-old was concerned, he didn’t play any competitive game since the World Cup semi-final. But he will be back on the field for the IPL next month and is currently with the CSK squad for the training camp.