Manchester United pay tribute to MS Dhoni after calling time on India captaincy

Manchester United have paid tribute to India's MS Dhoni following his decision to step down as his country's one-day international and Twenty 20 captain.

Dhoni, 35, announced his decision to relinquish the captain's armband in limited overs cricket on Wednesday (4 January) less than two weeks before the series against England. He does however remain eligible for selection for those matches.

The wicketkeeper-batsman, an avid United fan, has enjoyed tremendous success with India since taking the ODI and T20 captaincy roles in 2007 and the Premier League giants were quick to pass on their congratulations on a wonderful career in cricket.

Dhoni, India's county's most successful skipper of all time, has led his country to tremendous success in limited overs cricket, winning the T20 World Cup in 2007 and the 50-over Cricket World Cup on home soil in 2011 – hitting the winning runs in the final against Sri Lanka.

He went onto captain his country in their ICC Champions Trophy success in 2013, becoming the first international captain to win all three limited-overs trophies.

In all, Dhoni has captained his country in 199 ODIs and 72 T20Is, having made his ODI debut in 2004 before being awarded the armband in 2007.

India face England in the first of five ODIs on 15 January in Pune, before a one-off T20 international in Bangalore on 1 February.