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Ms. Dhoni – The Midas Touch
The ‘Thala’ of Indian Cricket is one the best gifts to the people of India and to the Cricketing fraternity. Dhoni is the only Indian captain in the history of Cricket to win all ICC trophies. India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, Asia Cups in 2010 and 2016, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Known as one of the best finishers in the game, Dhoni has 10,773 runs in the ODI format with an effective batting average of 50.53.
Time magazine included Dhoni in its annual Time 100 list as one of the "Most Influential People in the World in 2011. In June 2015, Forbes rated Dhoni at number 23 in the list of highest-paid athletes in the world, with estimated earnings at US$31 million. Wherever you look, this man has made his mark, be it his batting, his phenomenal reflexes behind the wickets, or the Midas touch he has when it comes to grabbing a win from impossible situations.
During the early 2000s, The Indian team was stressing on having a talented batsman as their Wicketkeeper, which is why the responsibility was given to Rahul Dravid before passing it on to Dhoni. He was picked for the Bangladesh tour in 2004/05 but had a hiccup in his start as he got run out for a duck on debut. In his fifth one day International, he scored a staggering 148 off just 123 balls, surpassing the previous record for the highest score by an Indian Wicketkeeper which then he re-wrote at the end of that year.
Today we are going to scrape through the list of Dhoni’s International records to show why is he one of the greatest ever:
Test Career of Dhoni
• India topped the Test cricket rankings for the first time, in 2009 under Dhoni's captaincy.
• Dhoni is the most successful Indian Test captain with 27 Test wins, surpassing Sourav Ganguly's record of 21.
• Dhoni is the first Indian wicket-keeper to surpass 4,000 Test runs.
• His 224 against Australia in Chennai is still the third-highest score by an Indian captain.
• Dhoni registered the highest Test score by an Indian wicket-keeper during his 224 when he was in 193, breaking the record of Budhi Kunderan's 192. This was also the highest score by a wicket-keeper–captain beating Englishman Alec Stewart's 164.
• Dhoni's 148 against Pakistan in Faisalabad is the fastest century scored by an Indian wicket-keeper and fourth overall.
• Dhoni completed 50 sixes as a captain after hitting a six in the third Test against England in Southampton, an Indian record.
• Dhoni has affected 294 dismissals in his career, this record ranks first in the all-time dismissals list by Indian wicket-keepers.
• Dhoni shares the record for most dismissals in an innings (6), with Syed Kirmani and has the highest in a match (9) by an Indian wicket-keeper.
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ODI Career of Dhoni
• Dhoni is the third captain and the first non-Australian to win 100 games.
• Dhoni is the fourth Indian to surpass 10,000 ODI runs after Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly & Rahul Dravid, and also the second wicket-keeper to achieve this milestone.
• He is the first player to pass 10,000 runs in ODI cricket with having a career average of over 50.
• Dhoni has the fifth-highest batting average of 51.09, among batsmen who have scored more than 5,000 runs and the second-highest batting average among batsmen with an aggregate of more than 10,000 runs.
• He has the most career runs in ODI history when batting at number 6 position (4031).
• He is the only cricketer to score more than one hundred in ODI cricket while batting at number 7 position or lower, Dhoni has 2 hundred batting at number 7.
• Dhoni has the most not outs (82) in ODIs.
• Dhoni is the first Indian and fifth overall to hit 200 sixes in ODIs.
• His 183 not out against Sri Lanka in 2005 is the highest score by a wicket-keeper.
• His 113 against Pakistan in Chennai in 2012 is the highest by a captain batting at number 7.
• Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were involved in a partnership of 100* against Sri Lanka, which is India's highest eighth-wicket partnership in one-day internationals.
• He has the most unbeaten innings and highest average in successful ODI run-chases.
• Dhoni holds the record for playing the most matches in ODI history as a captain who has also served as a wicket-keeper (200).
• He holds the records of effecting most dismissals in an innings (6) and career (432) by an Indian wicket-keeper.
• Dhoni has 120 stumpings which are highest by any wicket-keeper in an ODI career and are till date the only keeper to pass 100 stumpings
• Dhoni is the first Indian wicket-keeper to take 300 ODI catches and the fourth wicketkeeper in the world to achieve this milestone
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T20 Career of Dhoni
• Dhoni has most wins in T20Is as captain (41)
• Dhoni has played the most number of matches as captain in T20Is (72)
• He has most matches in T20I history as both captain and wicket-keeper (72)
• He has played most consecutive T20I innings without a duck (84).
• He is the only player who holds the record for playing the most T20I innings (76) and scored the most runs (1,153) before scoring a fifty.
• Dhoni has taken most dismissals as wicket-keeper in T20Is (87)
• He has taken most number of catches as a wicket-keeper in T20Is (54)
• Dhoni has affected most stumpings as wicket-keeper in T20Is (33)
• Dhoni has taken most number of catches as wicketkeeper in a T20I inning (5)
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He has been bestowed with many awards, including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 also becoming the first player to win the award twice, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2007, the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honor in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honor, in 2018.
Who knew that a Ticket Collector from Ranchi would rise from the ranks of being an attacking lower-order batsman to the most successful Indian captain? No written piece can possibly compile all of his achievements. Tell us what you love most about our ‘Captain Cool’ in the comments below and also let us know if we missed out on an International record by him.
