MS Dhoni leaving behind a glittering legacy in the Indian cricketing era has announced his retirement today from International cricket.
Dhoni’s future in international cricket had been a subject of heated debate in recent times. Putting an end to these debates, Mahindra Singh Dhoni has announced his retirement from all formats of the game.
The cricket world terms him as “Mr.Cool” and the Indian fans call him “Mahi”. Whatever the name may be, but MS Dhoni has put India on top during his captaincy tenure.
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Dhoni is the only captain who has won the inaugural 2007 World Twenty20 World Cup, Cricket World Cup (ODI World Cup) in 2011, and ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 for India. Dhoni also led the Indian team into the top spot in ICC Test Rankings.
Dhoni was inducted into the Indian ODI squad as wicket-keeper cum batsman in 2004 December. But he earned his stardom in his 5th ODI match against Pakistan with a knock of 148 runs at Visakhapatnam on April 5, 2005.
Hailing from Jharkhand State, MS Dhoni went on to become India’s most decorated captain with the following records –
- Most wins by an Indian Captain in ODI’s and T20’s.
- Most back-to-back wins by an Indian Captain in ODI’s.
- First-ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand for India.
- Only Captain to hit the most number of International Sixes. First Indian and 5th overall to hit 200 sixes in ODIs.
- Most successful Wicket keeper with most stumpings (195) (Tests-38, ODI’s-123, T20I’s-34) in International cricket in all the three formats of the game combinedly.
- Most catches (5) as wicketkeeper in T20I innings.
- Dhoni, with 294 test cricket dismissals in his career, ranks first in the all-time dismissals list by Indian wicket-keepers.
- Overall, Dhoni bagged 829 (634 catches, 195 stumpings) dismissals from behind the stumps.
- Dhoni shares the record for most dismissals in an innings (6) and in a match (9) with former Indian wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani.
- Most number of wins in T20’s as a captain (41) out of 72 matches. Also, the only player as both captain and wicket-keeper.
- Most successful Indian Test captain with 27 Test wins.
- Most overseas Test defeats (15) as an Indian captain.
- Dhoni is the 3rd captain to win 100 overall International matches.
- He is the highest scorer (183 not out) as a wicket-keeper batsman in an ODI inning.
- A total of 17,266 runs (Tests – 4876, ODI’s – 10773, T20I’s – 1617) with an average of 42.07 in 538 International matches in all the three formats of the game combinedly.
- Dhoni is the first Indian wicket-keeper to complete 4,000 Test runs.
- Most career runs in ODI history when batting at number 6 position.
- The only player to score more than a century in ODI cricket when batting at number 7 position or lower position.
- Dhoni’s 113 runs against Pakistan in Chennai in 2012 is the highest by a captain batting at number 7.
- Most not outs (82) in ODIs.
- Most consecutive T20I innings (84) without a duck.
- Dhoni’s maiden century against Pakistan in Faisalabad (148) is the fastest century scored by an Indian wicket-keeper, and 4th overall.
- Most unbeaten innings and highest average batsmen among with more than 20 such innings in successful ODI run-chases.
- Dhoni holds the record for playing the most matches (200) in ODI history as a captain who also served as a wicket-keeper.
- Most international matches (332) played as captain.
- Dhoni stepped down as captain of India in the limited over formats in January 2017. Before that, he played his last test series captaining India in the 2014–15 season in India’s tour of Australia.
On August 15, Dhoni chose Indian Independence Day as the right day to end his 15 years of International cricketing career and announced his retirement from all forms of the game.