The coolest captain

1. Batting Career Summary
M Inn NO Runs HS Avg BF SR 100 200 50 4s 6s
Test 90 144 16 4876 224 38.09 8248 59.12 6 1 33 544 78
ODI 319 272 78 9967 183 51.38 11274 88.41 10 0 67 770 217
T20I 93 80 40 1487 56 37.17 1170 127.09 0 0 2 107 47
IPL 175 158 58 4016 79 40.16 2906 138.2 0 0 20 275 186
Bowling Career Summary
M Inn B Runs Wkts BBI BBM Econ Avg SR 5W 10W
Test 90 7 96 67 0 1/0 1/0 4.19 0.0 0.0 0 0
ODI 319 2 36 31 1 14/1 14/1 5.17 31.00 36.00 0 0
Career Information
Test debut
vs Sri Lanka at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Dec 02, 2005
Last Test
vs Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Dec 26, 2014
ODI debut
vs Bangladesh at MA Aziz Stadium, Dec 23, 2004
Last ODI
vs South Africa at SuperSport Park, Feb 16, 2018
T20 debut
vs South Africa at The Wanderers Stadium, Dec 01, 2006
Last T20
vs England at County Ground, Jul 08, 2018
IPL debut
vs Kings XI Punjab at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Apr 19, 2008
Last IPL
vs Sunrisers Hyderabad at Wankhede Stadium, May 27, 2018
Profile
Less than thirty years before that enchanting Saturday night when Ravi Shastri’s voice rang through
television sets all over India, when even the spunky and exuberant Indian youth showed more
interest in an old-school CRT television at a local chai ki dukaan than the dance-floor at a pub, a
pump-operator in Ranchi awaited the birth of his third child.

2. 'Dhoniiiii finishes off in style. A magnificent strike into the crowd. India lift the World Cup after 28
years. The party's started in the dressing room. And it’s an Indian captain, who’s been absolutely
magnificent, in the night of the final.’ Any cricket fan worth his salt just read this in Ravi Shastri's
most dramatic voice, as Mahendra Singh Dhoni enchanted the Wankhede on the night of 2nd April
2011.
Captaincy
With a mature head on his shoulders and an astute and shrewd cricketing mind, Dhoni was
recommended by senior players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid for captaincy after Rahul
Dravid stepped down as skipper.
On his first assignment in the inaugural World T20 in 2007, Dhoni and his young troops romped to
the title in a shock victory for the inexperienced Indian side, bringing about the T20 revolution in
India. Dhoni's calm and composed leadership was widely lauded in the cricketing fraternity after
India brought the trophy home, earning him the label of ‘Captain Cool’. He was soon handed the ODI
leadership as a natural move after his World T20 triumph, and after the retirement of Anil Kumble in
late 2008, the Test leadership was thrust upon him too.
'India may have gained a great captain, but they’ve lost a fearsome hitter’, remarked Harsha Bhogle
after Dhoni was handed the reigns of the side. It was true. MS Dhoni, the powerful biffer of leather
who could clear the area code with the willow, had now become a gritty accumulator, who seemed to
be playing a lot more responsibly. At first, it did look like India had lost an important asset in Dhoni’s
explosive batting. However, over the years, Dhoni delivered performances with his new reserved
approach and developed the ability to move in and out of his rampage zone. He had inherited the
good qualities of his accomplished seniors in the team - carving his game as per the requirement of
the team.

3. Dhoni had a golden run as captain, with an unbeaten run in Test series since his captaincy debut,
leading them to their first stint as the top-ranked Test team in the world. His winning streak included
the home series against Australia in 2008, a 1-0 triumph in New Zealand in 2009, and a 2-0 victory
against Sri Lanka at home, culminating in a comprehensive win at the Brabourne stadium, Mumbai,
where he received the coveted Test Championship mace. India continued to dominate in home
Tests after this and drew a series in South Africa, coming very close to their maiden series win in
South Africa in the decider in Cape Town, where some stoic resistance by the hosts narrowly saved
them from the a defeat at the hands of a rampaging Indian side in top form.
Dhoni continued to garner praise for his success across formats; especially for his clinical success in
limited-overs cricket, reaching the pinnacle of his captaincy career during India's path to glory in the
2011 World Cup. Dhoni’s India knocked out Australia, the holders of the World Cup since 1999, in
the quarter-final in Ahmedabad. Having gone through a patch of lackluster form throughout the
tournament, Dhoni peaked at the right time, exhibiting his usual sangfroid on the way to 91* in the
World Cup final against Sri Lanka, and lofted an iconic six over long-on, triggering night-long
celebrations all over Mumbai and the rest of India.
The beginning of the end
In the away Border-Gavaskar trophy in 2014, moments after helping India draw the Boxing Day Test
at Melbourne, Dhoni announced that he was stepping down from Test captaincy and retiring from
Test cricket, citing excessive workload as the reason for quitting the longest format. After honing a
potent bowling attack and a gritty batting line-up for his heir, and taking several body blows - literal
and metaphorical - Dhoni ensured that he copped the criticism to nurture a potent team and left his
successor a young, zealous team with the tenacity, fitness, and most importantly, the positive
attitude to perform in all conditions.

4. Dhoni successfully led India to the 2015 World Cup semi-final, where the defending champions
conceded cricket’s most desirable trophy to Australia. Here too, Dhoni was the lone-warrior, as he
gritted his way through to 65, as his team fell short by 95 runs.
On 4th January, 2017 Dhoni stepped down as the captain of the Indian ODI and T20I team, bringing
about the end of an era in Indian cricket. Having led the team with zeal and panache across all
formats of the game for more than nine years, Dhoni decided to play with the freedom of a pure
batsman in his final lap of international cricket without the enormous burden of captaincy. Dhoni,
who had made the world believe that the batsman held the upper-hand if there were 20 required off
the last over, had switched to a sheet anchor mode with younger pinch-hitters batting around him,
once again, proving to be a benchmark of versatility in the Indian team.