Before Mahendra Singh Dhoni began playing cricket, he played football. Dhoni began his first class cricket career in the 1999-2000 season.
The talented cricketer, who is sometimes dubbed as MS Dhoni was born in Ranchi, India. His first encounter with cricket was when his football coach asked him to a play for a local cricket club.
Dhoni quickly became adept at his wicketkeeping skills, and hence began his cricket career with the Commando cricket club (1995-1998). Following his stint at club cricket, Dhoni was handpicked for the Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship in the 1997-1998 season. Dhoni has concentrated on cricket since 10th standard in high school.
International Debut for Team India
Dhoni quickly became noted in the One Day International (ODI) format for his efforts in the 2003/2004 seasons. He was selected to play for the India A team during a tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya. The little known cricketer then came to the attention of among former Captain Sourav Ganguly and others for his performance in the series.
In the 2000s, the Indian cricket team maintained its focus on ensuring batting talent in the wicket-keeper spot with players like Rahul Dravid.
Dhoni’s international debut came on December 23, 2004 when India played against Bangladesh. Dhoni was awarded the man of the match in his fifth match, which was against Pakistan in Vishakhapatnam. Here, he managed to score an astonishing 148 runs from only 123 balls. Dhoni has come to be known as the one of the best wicketkeeper-batsman that has played for India.
On October 31, 2004, Mahendra Dhoni scored the highest runs for a wicket keeper after breaking a record with 183 runs in a match against Sri Lanka, held in Jaipur. The previous record holder was Adam Gilchrist who held 172 runs.
As a wicketkeeper and an aggressive right-handed batsman, Dhoni is one among many wicket keepers that emerged out of junior and India A cricket teams.
Dhoni’s Captaincy Defined by Mental Agility
In 2007, Sachin Tendulkar recommended Dhoni for captaining the Indian cricket team, and the Board was in favor. In the inaugural T20 cricket World Cup 2007, Team India went on to victory. Dhoni also captained the first ever trilateral One Day International series victory against Sri Lanka and Australia.
Other captaining skills that deserve mention include the first bilateral ODI series victory for Indian in Sri Lanka. Dhoni also took India to a win against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 2-0 win in the 4-match Test series.
In many aspects, Dhoni’s leadership skills has been compared to those of Australia’s Steve Waugh, characterized by mental toughness combined with cool temperament.
Recently, Dhoni also led the ODI Indian team that defeated England 5-0. He was given the title – the best ODI batsman in the world – by the International Cricket Council (ICC), and was given the coveted the ODI Player of the Year 2008 award. Dhoni becomes the first Indian cricketer to rise to this status.
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