Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 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. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wickets – keeper and captain in the history of Cricket. He was also the first wicket-keeper to effect 100 stumpings in ODI cricket.
Dhoni is one of the most successful captains in the history of the game and the only skipper to have won all three major ICC trophies — T20 World Cup (2007), 50-over World Cup (2011) and Champions Trophy (2013).
Early Life
Dhoni was born on 7 July 1981 in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Dhoni has a sister Jayanti Gupta and a brother Narendra Singh Dhoni. He is a fan of Adam Gilchrist, and his childhood idols were cricket teammate Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and singer Lata Mangeshkar.
Dhoni made his ODI debut on 23 December 2004 against Bangladesh, He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007 and led the team to its first-ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. In June 2013, when India defeated England in the final of the Champions Trophy in England, Dhoni became the first captain to win all three ICC limited-overs trophies (World Cup, Champions Trophy and the World Twenty20). After taking up the Test captaincy in 2008, he led the team to series wins in New Zealand and the West Indies, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008, 2010 and 2013. In 2009, Dhoni also led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test rankings.
In 2013, under Dhoni’s captaincy, India became the first team in more than 40 years to whitewash Australia in a Test series. In the Indian Premier League, he captained the Chennai Super Kings to victory at the 2010, 2011 and 2018 seasons, along with wins in the 2010 and 2014 editions of Champions League Twenty20.
Awards and Records
He has been the recipient of many awards, including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009, the first player to win the award twice, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2007, the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, in 2018.
He also holds numerous captaincy records such as the most wins by an Indian captain in ODIs and T20Is, and most back-to-back wins by an Indian captain in ODIs.
A right-handed middle-order batsman and wicketkeeper, He is one of the highest run scorers in One Day Internationals (ODIs) with more than 10,000 runs scored and is considered an effective “finisher” in limited-overs formats.
Under his captaincy, India won the inaugural 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the 2010 and 2016 Asia Cups, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.
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