Captain Cool: Mahendra Singh Dhoni

M.S. Dhoni with
1^st ICC T20 World Cup

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is born on 7^th June, 1981. Dhoni was born and brought up in Ranchi, Bihar (now Jharkhand). His father’s name is Pan Singh and mother’s name is Devki Devi. Dhoni has a sister Jayanti and a brother Narendra.

Dhoni studied at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali, Ranchi, Jharkhand where he initially excelled in badminton and football and was selected at district and club level in these sports.Dhoni was a goalkeeper for his football team and was sent to play cricket for a local cricket club by his football coach. Though he had not played cricket, Dhoni impressed with his wicket keeping skills and became the regular wicketkeeper at the Commando cricket club. Based on his performance at club cricket, he was picked for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship and he performed well.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni played for the Bihar cricket team during the 1998/99 cricket season and was selected to represent India-A for a tour to Kenya in 2004. Dhoni made multiple centuries against the Pakistan-A team in a tri-nation series and was selected in the Indian national team later in that year.

His one day international debut came after playing five years of first class cricket on the 23^rd December, 2004 Vs Bangladesh at Chittagong, Bangladesh. Unfortunately, he was run out on the first ball he faced. It wasn’t a great debut for him where batting is concerned. Luck wasn’t on his side in the first four matches he played. Where as on the fifth match which was played against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam, Dhoni came to the crease at one down and scored 148 runs from just 123 balls. He hit 15 boundaries and four sixes. He got his first Man of the match award that day. This is the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper. Later in the year, he broke his own record as well as set the current world record for the highest score in the second innings in ODI matches as he scored 183* on 31^st of October, 2005 against Srilanka which was played at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. Adam Gilchrist was the former record holder with 172 runs. Sri Lanka had set India a target of 299 after a Kumar Sangakkara century and in reply, India lost Tendulkar early. Dhoni was promoted to accelerate the scoring and ended the game with an unbeaten 183 off 145 balls, winning the game for India – an innings described in Wisden Almanack (2006) as "Uninhibited, yet anything but crude".

Dhoni's success in the limited overs format secured him a place in the test team. On the 2^nd of December 2005, Dhoni made his Test cricket debut against Srilanka which was played in Chennai. Dhoni replaced Dinesh Karthik in December 2005 as the Indian Test wicket-keeper.

Dhoni scored 30 runs in his debut match that was marred by rain. Dhoni came to the crease when the team was struggling at 109/5 and as wickets kept falling around him, he played an aggressive innings and was the last man dismissed. Dhoni made his maiden half-century in the second Test and his quick scoring rate (half century came off 51 balls) aided India to set a target of 436 and the Sri Lankans were bowled out for 247

India toured Pakistan in January/February 2006 and Dhoni scored his maiden century in the second Test at Faisalabad. India were left in a tight spot as Dhoni was joined by Irfan Pathan with the team still 107 away from avoiding follow-on. Dhoni played his typical aggressive innings as he scored his maiden test century in just 93 balls after scoring his first fifty in just 34 deliveries.

Consistent performances in ODI cricket through the end of the 2005/06 season saw Dhoni briefly ranked as the No. 1 batsman in the ICC ODI ratings. Dhoni overtook Ricky Ponting as number one in the ICC ODI rankings for batsmen on 20 April 2006. Dhoni topped the ICC ODI Batsman rankings for several months continuously in 2009, it was Hussy from Australia who replaced him for the top spot in the beginning of 2010.

Dhoni's form dipped through 2006 as India lost matches at the ICC Champions trophy, DLF Cup, away bilateral series against West Indies and South Africa. A return to form in the home series against West Indies and Sri Lanka in early 2007 proved to be an inaccurate indicator of Dhoni's form as India crashed out of the first round in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Dhoni was out for a duck in both India's losses. After the World Cup, Dhoni won the Man of the series award in the bilateral ODI tournament against Bangladesh.

Dhoni was nominated as the vice-captain of the ODI team for the series against South Africa in Ireland and the subsequent India-England 7-match ODI series. And was elected as captain of Indian Twenty-20 Cricket Team for the World Twenty20 in September 2007. He led India to the ICC World Twenty 20 trophy in South Africa with a victory over arch rivals Pakistan in an intensely fought final on 24 September 2007, and became the second Indian captain to have won a World cup in any form of cricket, after Kapil Dev.

He, then went on to become the ODI captain of the Indian team for the seven-match ODI series against Australia in September 2007.

He made his debut as full-time Test captain of India during the fourth and final test against Australia at Nagpur in November 2008 replacing Anil Kumble who retired from cricket after the third test. India eventually won that Test thus clinching the series 2–0 and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Dhoni had previously captained India on a stand-in basis against South Africa and Australia in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Dhoni also led team India to number one position in ICC rankings in test cricket for the first time. Dhoni has also been the recipient of many awards including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first Indian player to achieve this feat), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour in 2009.

As of January 2010, Dhoni is the highest ranked ODI batsman on the ICC Rankings List. Dhoni was named as captain of Wisden's first-ever Dream Test XI Team in 2009 and has topped the list of world’s top 10 earning cricketers compiled by Forbes. He was named as the captain of ICC World Test and ICC ODI teams for 2009.

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