Happy Birthday Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The former Indian captain celebrates his birthday today, July 7. The 39-year-old was born in 1981 in Ranchi, Jharkhand to parents Pan Singh Dhoni and Devaki Dhoni. He has played badminton and football well at school level, but later evinced interest to take-up cricket. Dhoni in his illustrious career fondly referred as ‘Captain cool’ left an indelible mark in the cricket world that will be cherished for years to come. In his stellar career, Dhoni had played 90 Tests, out of which he amassed 4,876 runs at an average of 38.09. He also played 98 T20Is for India where he scored 1,617 runs at an average of 37.60.
Why Dhoni emerges as successful ODI captain
When we think of the best of Indian captains, the names we recollect are Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, and yes your guess is as right as ours. The one name which conquerors all is MS Dhoni. The very reason for him to be considered as the greatest of all is his track record and the number of matches India won under his captaincy. Speaking about his ODI career, Dhoni out of 200 games he played as the captain led India win 110 matches.
So far, total of 24 players have captained India ODIs team. Ajit Wadekar was the first ODI captain of Indian cricket team. Under his captainship, India played two matches and lost both of them. Then comes, Mohammad Azharuddin who played 174 matches while Saurav Ganguly had played 146 matches. But it was only in Dhoni’s captaincy who led maximum win. Not just this, he also hold record of being the only captain who has led his country to 50 or more international matches in all formats.
