Who is Dhoni ?

Born on July 7, 1981, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, also known as MS Dhoni, is an Indian cricket player who captained his country's side in Test cricket from 2008 until December 28, 2014, and in limited-overs formats from September 2007 to January 4, 2017. He is a middle-order batsman and wicketkeeper who is attacking and right-handed. He is considered as one of the best finishers in limited-overs cricket. In addition, he is considered to be among the world's top wicketkeepers and is renowned for having extremely quick hands. He played his first Test match a year later against Sri Lanka after making his One Day International (ODI) debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh.

Dhoni owns a number of captaincy records, including the most victories in Tests and ODIs as well as the most consecutive victories in ODIs. After Rahul Dravid relinquished his ODI captaincy in 2007, he guided the side to its first-ever bilateral ODI series victories in New Zealand and Sri Lanka. India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the 2007–08 CB Series, the 2010 Asia Cup, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy while he was captain.

 In the final of the 2011 World Cup, Dhoni scored 91 not out off 79 balls handing India the victory for which he was awarded the Man of the Match. In June 2013, when India defeated Dhoni was named Man of the Match after scoring 91 not out off 79 balls to lead India to victory in the 2011 World Cup final. Dhoni became the first captain to win all three of the ICC limited-overs trophies (World Cup, Champions Trophy, and World Twenty 20) when India defeated England in the Champions Trophy final in England in June 2013. He assumed leadership of the Test team in 2008 and guided it to victories in West Indies and New Zealand series, as well as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008, 2010, and 2013. Dhoni also guided the Indian team to the top of the ICC Test rankings for the first time in 2009. Under his leadership, India defeated Australia in a Test series in 2013, making history as the first side to do it in almost 40 years. He led the Chennai Super Kings to victories in the Indian Premier League in 2010 and 2011, as well as in the 2010 and 2014 Champions League Twenty 20 tournaments. On December 30, 2014, he declared his retirement from the test field.

Dhoni works as Vice President of India Cements Ltd. after resigning from Air India. India Cements owns the IPL team Chennai Super Kings and Dhoni has been the captain since the first season of the IPL. Dhoni is the co-owner of Indian Super League team Chennai FC.

Dhoni won the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first player to win both awards), and Rajiv received the Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2007 and in 2009 he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour. He was selected as the captain of the ICC World Test XI and ICC World ODI XI teams in 2009. He was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant by the Indian Army. 1 Nov 2011 Col.to Dhoni. He is the second Indian cricketer to receive this honor after Kapil Dev. In 2011, Time magazine listed Donny as one of the "World's Most Influential People" in its Time 100 list. In 2012, SportsPro ranked Dhoni as the 16th most marketable athlete in the world. In June 2015, Forbes ranked Dhoni twenty-third on its list of the world's highest-paid athletes, with an estimated net worth of $31 million. In 2016, the M.S. Dhoni: Unspeakable stories have been created about him.

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 

T20 debut    vs South Africa at The Wanderers Stadium, Dec 01, 2006 

 IPL debut    vs Kings XI Punjab at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Apr 19, 2008

Captain Cool 

Dhoni was named the captain of Indian squad for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa in September 2007. India were crowned champions as Dhoni led the team to victory against Pakistan in a thrilling contest. 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 was injured in the third test and who then announced his retirement. Dhoni was vice-captain in this series up to that point. 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.

     It was under his captaincy that India climbed to No. 1 in the ICC Test Rankings in December 2009. After that he managed to lead India in a series-leveling world championship of Tests against the South Africans in February 2010. India also managed to draw the Test series 1–1 in South Africa later that year.

      After winning the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup final against Sri Lanka on 2 April 2011 with his match winning knock of unbeaten 91, Tendulkar heaped praises on Dhoni, claiming him to be the best captain he has played under. Tendulkar mentioned that it was Dhoni's calm influence that was rubbing off on all his team-mates and described Dhoni's handling of pressure was incredible.

      Only eleven players have captained ten or more Tests playing as a wicket-keeper. Dhoni leads the table with 60 Tests as captain, 35 ahead of Mushfiqur Rahim in second place.

In March 2013, Dhoni became the most successful Indian Test captain when he eclipsed Sourav Ganguly's record of 21 victories from 49 Tests. Ganguly also said in an interview to a news channel that Dhoni is the all-time greatest captain of India and he has a great record to support this credential.

       In August 2016, Dhoni was selected as captain for India's first tour to the United States, where India played two T20Is against the West Indies in Lauderhill, Florida. India lost the first match on 27 August 2016, during which Dhoni surpassed former Australian captain Ricky Ponting to become the most experienced captain in international cricket.

     Dhoni's final game as Indian captain was on 10 January, 2017 in a warmup match between England and India during the limited-overs leg of England Tour of India. Dhoni stated he will still fulfill his duties as captains in various domestic teams.

Match bans

 As captain of the Indian cricket team, Dhoni has seldom been suspended due to his team's slow over rate. In December 2009 he was suspended for two ODI matches against Sri Lanka by ICC match referee Jeff Crowe as India was three overs short of the specified rate; Virender Sehwag acted as captain for the two matches in Cuttack and Kolkata. In January 2012 Dhoni was banned for the fourth Test match against Australia in Adelaide as India was two overs short during the third Test in Perth. Sehwag captained the team in the Adelaide test and Wriddhiman Saha kept the wickets. In the CB Series in February, Dhoni again faced a one match ban for slow-over rate against Australia.

Awards

 Honorary awards and appreciations

• ICC ODI Player of the Year : 2008, 2009
• ICC World ODI XI: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
• ICC World Test XI: 2009, 2010, 2013
• LG People's Choice Award : 2013
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest honor given for achievement in sports, 2007–08.
• Honorary doctorate degree by De Montfort University in August 2011.

Man of the Match awards:

S No	Series	Season	Result
1	2nd Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test Series	2008/09	India won by 320 runs.
2	1st Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test Series	2012/13	India won by 8 wickets.