Mahendra Singh Dhoni is an Indian international cricketer and wicket keeper who captained the Indian Cricket team in limited-over formats. He is extensively regarded as one of the supreme finishers in limited-over cricket. He is also the captain of Chennai Super Kings, the franchisee from Chennai, in Indian Premier League. Mahendra Singh Dhoni led team India to win the prestigious World Cup for the second time in 2011 after Kapil Dev. He also helped Indian win the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007. Under his captaincy, Indian claimed the number one position in International Cricket Council rankings in Test cricket for the first time.
Early Life of Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Dhoni was born on July 7, 1981 in Ranchi District in a Rajput family to Pan Singh and Devaki Devi. He studied at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir in Ranchi. Initially, Dhoni played badminton and football and got selected at district and club level in these sports. He has also served as a goalkeeper for his football team. He was sent by his football coach to play cricket for a local cricket club. Dhoni had impressed everyone with his wicket-keeping skills and became the regular wicketkeeper at the Commando cricket club between the years 1995-1998. Based on this performance he was picked by Vinoo Mankad for Under-16 Championship. He emphasised on cricket after 10th standard. He was a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) at Kharagpur railway station from 2001 to 2003.
Career of Dhoni
Dhoni had played for Bihar under-19 squad and scored 176 runs. His contribution to the tournament was 488 runs. He had made his debut for Bihar in the 1999-2000 seasons as an 18 year old where he scored a half century. He had scored just 5 fifty in each season in four Ranji Trophy matches. He was part of the East Zone squad that won the Deodhar Trophy for the year. Dhoni was picked in the One Day International squad for the Bangladesh tour in the year 2004. He did not have a great start to his one day international career. He was picked for the Pakistan One Day International series. In the second match of the series, he scored 148 in Visakhapatnam. Dhoni did get an opportunity to bat in the first two matches of the Sri Lankan series. He had ended the game with an unbeaten 183 off 145 balls, winning the game for India. He overtook Ricky Ponting as number one in the ICC One Day International rankings for batsmen in the year 2006. He topped the ICC One Day International batsman rankings for several months continuously in 2009. In 2009 he scored 1198 runs in just 24 innings at an astonishing average of 70.4.
Dhoni as Captain
Dhoni became the One Day International captain of the Indian team against Australia in 2007. He made his debut as full-time Test captain of India against Australia at Nagpur in November 2008. India eventually won that. It was under his captaincy that India climbed to number one position in the ICC Test Rankings in December 2009.
In 2011, team Indian won the World Cup for the second time against Sri Lanka. In the final match Dhoni scored an unbeaten 91 runs striking the final six that led to the glorious win. He won the Man of the Match award in the final match of the World Cup. He also remained the captain of the Chennai Super Kings that won two consecutive Indian Premier League matches in 2010 and 2011.
In November 2013, Dhoni became the second Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to make 1,000 or more ODI-runs against Australia. He got his retirement from Indian National Cricket Team in Test arena. Dhoni has stepped down from the captaincy of both the One Day Internationals and T20Is in 2017. On 8th February 2018, Dhoni became the first Indian wicket-keeper to effect 400 dismissals in ODI cricket. He achieved this achievement during the third One Day International against South Africa following the stumping of Aiden Markram.
Test Career of Dhoni
Dhoni replaced Dinesh Karthik in December 2005 as the Indian Test wicket-keeper. He scored 30 runs in his debut test match and scored his maiden century in the second Test at Faisalabad. Dhoni was the top scorer in India`s first innings against England in the third test match at Wankhede Stadium. With this achievement India soared up to the number one position in Test cricket for the first time in history. He played his last series in 2014-15 in India`s tour of Australia captaining India in the second and third tests. He has also set a record for finishing the most dismissals in a match by an Indian wicketkeeper until it was broken by Wriddhiman Saha in 2018.
T20I Career of Dhoni
Dhoni was a part of India"s first ever Twenty20 international match. He made debut against South Africa in December 2006. On 18th February 2018, he created a new wicket-keeping record of having taken 134 catches in 275 T20Is against South Africa in the first T20I following. This record was earlier held by Kumar Sangakkara.
Awards of Mahendra Singh Dhoni
The following recognitions have been given to Dhoni:
Padma Bhushan, India`s third-highest civilian award in 2008
Padma Shri, India`s fourth-highest civilian award in 2009
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India`s highest honor given for achievement in sports from 2007-08
ICC ODI Player of the Year- 2008, 2009
Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year in 2011
MTV Youth Icon of the Year in 2006
LG People`s Choice Award in 2013
Honorary Doctorate Degree by De Montfort University in August 2011
Dhoni outside Cricket
A biographical film based on the life of Dhoni, titled "M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story", was released on 30th September 2016. He is a co-owner of Ranchi based Hockey club "Ranchi Rays". He is also a co-owner of Chennai based Football club "Chennaiyin FC". Dhoni launched lifestyle brand "SEVEN" in 2016. Currently Dhoni has 20 endorsements like Pepsico, Reebok, Exide Life Insurance, Fashion at Big Bazaar, Siyaram, Bharat Petroleum and many more.
Career Statistics of Dhoni
| Competition | Test | ODI | T20I |
| Matches | 90 | 350 | 98 |
| Runs scored | 4,876 | 10773 | 1,617 |
| Batting average | 38.09 | 50.53 | 37.6 |
| 100s/50s | Jun-33 | Oct-73 | 0/2 |
| Top score | 224 | 183* | 56 |
| Balls bowled | 96 | 36 | - |
| Wickets | 0 | 1 | - |
| Bowling average | - | 31 | - |
| 5 wickets in innings | - | 0 | - |
| 10 wickets in match | - | 0 | - |
| Best bowling | - | 14-Jan | - |
| Catches/stumpings | 256/38 | 321/123 | 57/34 |