David Leggat: Dhoni's retirement was on the cards

India's MS Dhoni, left, watches on as Australia's Steven Smith hits a six during their play on day one of the third cricket test in Melbourne, Australia. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbil)

MS Dhoni surprised the cricket world with his exit as India's test captain last night, but hindsight suggests the time was coming.

His form with the bat was slipping and his glovework had not been top drawer for some time. He has struggled to move sideway to snaffle catches.

Still, when the Indian cricket board announced Dhoni was quitting there was surprise, given his standing as among the most influential captains in the game.

There had been fitness issues for the 33-year-old of late.

He missed five ODIs against Sri Lanka in November with a hand injury, which also rubbed him out of the first test in the current series against Australia in Adelaide.

Consider the intensity of a career in which he was leading India in three forms of cricket, and the Chennai Super Kings in the high profile Indian Premier League for six years.

Since the start of 2008, Dhoni has racked up 398 games across all international formats, IPL and Champion League.

Dhoni quits as India's most successful test captain with 27 wins from 60 tests, both numbers records for an Indian skipper.

In the drawn test in Melbourne yesterday, Dhoni took nine dismissals, also an Indian record.

Only Australian Bert Oldfield (52) from the 1930s, and England's Godfrey Evans of the immediate post-Second World War era (46) managed more than Dhoni's 38 stumpings, which incidentally left him third equal with another Indian, Syed Kirmani.

His batting can be split distinctly in two.

He averaged 47.21 from 72 innings in Asia, including six centuries; outside that continent there were also 72 innings, by nice symmetry, but no centuries and an average of just 29.79.

His test high was 224 against Australia in Chennai in 2013. He finishes with an average of 38.09 over 90 tests in a nine-year test career.

India's board secretary Sanjay Patel has said the two had spoken before the Melbourne test about standing down. Injury was not a factor, according to Patel, but most likely the weight of the job pulled him down. Even so, Patel said he was ''a bit taken aback by the suddenness of his statement".

Where others may have opted for a more glorious exit it's important to remember he remains India's ODI and T20 captain.

However it was a lowkey departure, no trumpets or grand statements, and with 24 not out to help ensure a drawn third match in a series already lost his final contribution to test cricket.

Regarded as a pragmatic man not much given to sentiment, Dhoni gives way to the firebrand Virat Kohli, a man who could start a fire in an empty room without the need of matches.

Kohli has been at war with Australia this summer, not necessarily all of his own making but he polarises opinion, brilliant batsman yes, but the rest of the package brings a mixed view.

The champion batsman Rahul Dravid has called Dhoni an inspiration who led by deeds rather than roaring rhetoric.

''One of the things I liked about MS was what you saw was what you got. He never asked you to do anything that he himself didn't do," Dravid said.

Kohli has big boots to fill. India expects.