MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI ( MS DHONI ) 7 July 1981

 

MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI

                                       ( MS.DHONI )

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is a former Indian international cricketer who captained the Indian national team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. Dhoni has won both the World Cup (in 2011) and the Champions Trophy (in 2013), the only other cricketing gold medals in which he has participated.

In fact, Dhoni is the only Indian captain to have won the World Cup and Champions Trophy, the top two sporting tournaments in India. Only Pakistan’s Javed Miandad and Mohammed Azharuddin are in the top 10 for both the World Cup and Champions Trophy. Dhoni took over the captaincy of the Indian team in 2007 following a string of losses to the West Indies, and went on to become the most successful Indian captain in both cricket and India’s overall rankings. However, the cricket fraternity is unlikely to see him captaining a national side again after the 2019 World Cup, which is his final tournament as captain.

In his outstanding tenure as India’s skipper, Dhoni has set a new benchmark and an enduring legacy for cricket as a sport. For the first time in Indian cricket history, an Indian captain won a World Cup and a Champions Trophy within the span of his debut year as captain. While the debut win was arguably the greatest achievement of his career, Dhoni also led India to a number of memorable victories, which resulted in India becoming a dominant cricketing side over the years. Dhoni has also earned himself a place in the top five of the all-time Test and ODI run-scorers in India’s cricketing history.

In his ten years as a national captain, Dhoni has established himself as the greatest batsman to ever represent India in the longest format of the game. He remains India’s second-highest run-scorer in Test cricket, along with being the third-highest in terms of runs scored. With 2,569 runs in 115 Tests and nearly 406 runs in 99 ODI innings, Dhoni has also overtaken all the batting records of the Indian side for the period of his captaincy, which includes Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Karle and Yuvraj Singh.

In Test cricket, Dhoni has also become the highest run-scorer for India, despite leaving the game in 2014. Apart from Dhoni, only Tendulkar has scored more than 2,000 runs in a calendar year in the top division of international cricket. Dhoni has also led India to victories in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, 2009 ICC World Twenty20, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2012 ICC Champions Trophy, 2013 ICC World Twenty20 and 2017 ICC World Twenty20.

Dhoni’s international exploits are just as exceptional. In ODI cricket, he has already scored 1,733 runs in 91 innings at an average of 54.72, with 7 tons and 33 fifties. Additionally, Dhoni is also the highest run-scorer for India in the Twenty20 format, with 649 runs in 68 innings at an average of 35.44. However, in the same time period, Dhoni has also proved himself as a quality captain, winning a number of important limited-over matches.

Dhoni has won major trophies with both the national team and as a captain. Following his debut as a captain in 2007, Dhoni has won every major trophy that India has ever won. During the ten years as a national team captain, he has won two World Cups (in 2011 and 2015), two Champions Trophy (in 2013 and 2017) and one World T20 (in 2016).

He also won a Twenty20 International (T20I) World Cup, which was hosted in India (in 2011). Prior to Dhoni’s appointment as captain, India had not won any major tournament. In fact, India’s last major tournament win was back in 1999, when Dhoni had also made his debut in international cricket as a 15-year-old.

While Dhoni might be stepping down as a captain after the 2019 World Cup, his legacy as a cricketing captain will be everlasting. He has set an enduring example of leadership and has become a role-model for every aspiring captain. In particular, Dhoni has set an example by putting one foot in the past and one foot in the future. He has set himself a target of becoming a captain once again, as soon as his playing career ends.

Dhoni has also dedicated his leadership skills and talent to building the Indian team’s youth programs, which have made the country one of the most successful cricketing nations in the world.

In particular, Dhoni has worked closely with a number of successful entrepreneurs and successful businessmen, such as the billionaire Mukesh Ambani and India’s current chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal. While Dhoni has a good knowledge of managing a team, he has also been successful in building successful leadership skills.

Dhoni is one of India’s best captains ever, and has earned himself a place in the top five of India’s highest-ever run-scorers in international cricket. While his Test and ODI records do not match up to Tendulkar’s, he has proven himself as a quality captain, one of India’s best captains ever, and one of India’s best ever cricketers.