A career in pictures: MS Dhoni is not only India’s but cricket world’s GOAT

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, hailing from Ranchi, Bihar (now Jharkhand), a state which was not known for its cricket talents, earned glory as an outstanding wicketkeeper-batsman and one of the greatest captains in the game. He became the only Indian captain to win all three major International Cricket Council events. He won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, ended India’s 27-year wait to win the World Cup by steering India to a World Cup triumph on home soil in 2011 and also lifted the 2013 Champions Trophy.

Dhoni was a fine goalkeeper for his school's football team in Ranchi. He had excellent flexibility and agility and so his coach suggested Dhoni’s name to a cricket club which wanted a wicketkeeper. Dhoni impressed everyone with his agility behind the wickets which also prompted him to take up cricket seriously and went on to play all age groups.

Dhoni worked as a ticket examiner for Indian Railways but continued to play cricket. A long-haired Dhoni emerged as a fearless cricketer scoring heavily in all domestic matches and reached the India A team. He hit back-to-back centuries against Pakistan A team to catch the attention of then captain Sourav Ganguly.

In December 2004, Dhoni made his One Day International debut under Ganguly’s captaincy against Bangladesh. In the 2005 Sri Lanka tour, he went on to hit 183 runs chasing Sri Lanka’s target of 299 to record the highest score by any wicketkeeper. Dhoni never looked back after this and went on to shatter records with regularly intervals. He holds the record for most stumping in international cricket. He has produced 38 stumping in Tests, 128 in ODIs and 34 in T20s.

In 2007, after a player of the match performance against Pakistan during the third One-day match in Lahore, Dhoni won the approval of the then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who commented that he looks good with the hairstyle and should not cut it. Dhoni gave one of his rare interviews to Gulf News with his long hair and said: “The adulation from the fans is my biggest motivation. They keep reminding me that I have to work hard and perform at my best all the time.”

Dhoni went on to emerge as the best finisher through his batting skills. He used his trademark helicopter shot to full use and won matches and the hearts of the fans. He even won the World Cup by reaching the target through a six off that shot. Once he told Gulf News the secret of his helicopter shot. “It is something that I learnt when I used to play tennis ball cricket on the streets of India. It is a difficult shot which I used to play in tennis ball cricket but I realised it is tough to implement it in a proper cricket game.”

Dhoni took over Indian ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid 2007. In 2009, Dhoni also led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test ranking and retained it for 18 months. In 2013, under his captaincy, India became the first team in more than 40 years to whitewash Australia in a Test series.

Dhoni emerged as one of the most successful captains in the Indian Premier League as the captain of the Chennai Super League. He led Chennai Super Kings to IPL title triumph in 2010 and 2011 and 2018 and Champions League T20 titles in 2010 and 2014.

In December 2014, Dhoni retired from Test cricket soon after the third Test in Melbourne. He had scored 4876 runs at an average of just over 38 with six hundreds. He had also captained India to more Test wins — 27 — than anyone else. He erased Ganguly’s record of 21 wins.

On July 4, 2010, Dhoni married Sakshi Singh Rawat, his schoolmate and in February 6, 2015 became a father to a baby girl named Ziva.

Dhoni stepped down as captain of India in the limited-over formats in January 2017. He continued as a player under Virat Kohli’s captaincy. His last innings for India was the first semi-final against New Zealand at Manchester when he got run out for 50. He has been on a sabbatical since then but is expected to play in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Australia during October-November 2020.

A movie was made based on Dhoni’s life, from his childhood title M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput acted as Dhoni. It was written and directed by Neeraj Pandey.

Dhoni has received many awards and honours, such as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna - India’s highest honour given for achievement in sports in 2007-08; Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award in 2009; and Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award in 2018. In 2011, Dhoni was conferred the rank of honorary lieutenant colonel in the Indian Territorial Army and in August 2019 he did a two week stint with the army in Jammu and Kashmir.

Dhoni has enjoyed coaching youngsters for a long time. He has even set up an academy in Dubai.

Dhoni today has huge fan following all over the world and has fans who trail him around the globe. Gulf News met some of them during Asia Cup and World Cup events. He has a fan named Babu from Chandigarh, and another diehard cheerleader called Mohammad Bashir from Chicago

Away from cricket, Dhoni relaxes with his bikes. He has over 16 motorcycles in his collection. Recently he was spotted on his latest bike in Ranchi. He once told Gulf News about his love for bikes. “I am a bike freak,” he said. “A player named Rohit Kashyap used to come for practice on a Yamaha RD 350. I loved that bike and dreamt of owning one. After I started playing I purchased a Yamaha RD 350. Now I own a Yamaha 6 and a Kawasaki.”