Veteran Indian pacer Ishant Sharma, who is all set to play his 100th Test match, revealed that while playing the 2014 Melbourne Test, he had taken multiple injections owing to severe knee pain. However, while playing, he did not know, the match was going to be MS Dhoni's last.
The former Indian skipper had stunned world cricket after he had announced his retirement from Test cricket. The announcement had come after the Boxing Day Test in 2014, a match that ended in a draw.
In a video interaction with Ravichandran Ashwin on his Youtube channel, Ishant Sharma revealed how he learned about MS Dhoni's retirement decision. He recalled: "I felt very bad (on MS Dhoni's retirement). I had taken many injections for that Melbourne Test match because I was experiencing severe pain in my knee. I did not know that Mahi bhai (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) was going to retire. In fact, nobody knew that he was going to retire. So I was taking an injection every session."
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Continuing the story, Ishant Sharma added: "At tea on the fourth day, I told Mahi bhai I cannot take injections any more. So he told me, that's okay. You don't need to bowl now. Then something happened, and he told me, 'lambu tune mujhe Test match mein chod diya' (you left me during the Test). I did not understand. Then he elaborated, 'you left me midway in my last Test match."
Ishant Sharma also said how stunned he was after hearing this. "I was stunned. I told him if I knew I would definitely have continued to play. So that was a really touching story. I didn't know till the last day that he was retiring."
The pacer went on to describe MS Dhoni as someone who cared little for numbers. He added that Dhoni was never bothered about playing 100 Tests.
"Although he was close to 100 Tests, he was always a team man. I remember he told me when we were in England that it is not important for him to play hundred Tests. Instead, he felt that we need to start grooming (Wriddhiman) Saha. That's why he took the sudden decision to retire, I feel."
About MS Dhoni, the wicketkeeper-batsman played 90 Tests and scored 4876 runs at an average of 38.09, with six hundreds and a best of 224. As for Ishant Sharma, he is all set to feature in his 100th Test when India lock horns with England in the pink-ball Test at the Motera.
