BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said: "Someone who was present in the dressing room told me that he (Dhoni) was a bit emotional while announcing his decision."

Team director Ravi Shastri told a website, "When he (Dhoni) walked into the dressing room, got the team together and said what he had to, he caught us all off guard. There were no dramas, he just said, very openly, 'I can't play all formats anymore, so I'm announcing my retirement from Tests.' He has always been someone who will do what he wants to, and he stayed true to that till the last moment. To have the guts to say to his team that he could not go on playing all formats, it tells you how honest he is with himself and his mates."

Dhoni surprised the cricket world with his sudden announcement of immediate retirement from Test cricket, making way for Virat Kohli to don the mantle of captaincy.

Announcement of Dhoni's retirement after the wicketkeeper-batsman had played in 90 Test matches, 60 of them as captain, was made immediately after India lost the current Test series to Australia following a drawn third Test here.

"One of India's greatest Test Captains under whose leadership India became the No. 1 team in the Test Rankings MS Dhoni, has decided to retire from Test Cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of Cricket," the BCCI said in a statement.