the most successful cricket
captains of India, turned 31 on Saturday. The cricketer, who achieved
success with his charisma and dedication, was born in Ranchi on July 7,
1981.
An icon in the cricket world, Dhoni does not need any introduction. He
studied at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali,(now the school is known
as JVM, Shyamli, Ranchi) Ranchi, Jharkhand where he initially excelled
in badminton and football and was selected at district and club level.
He was a goalkeeper in the football team and was sent to play cricket for a local cricket club by his football coach.
Though he had not played cricket, Dhoni impressed many with his
wicket-keeping skills and became the regular wicketkeeper at the
Commando cricket club (1995–1998). Based on his performance, he was
picked for the 1997/98 season of the Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16
Championship where he performed well.
Many of us do not know, the superstar MS Dhoni has also worked as a
Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) at Kharagpur railway station from 2001 to
2003, under South Eastern Railway in Midnapore (W), a district in West
Bengal. He was a very honest, straight-forward employee of the Indian
Railways. But he also had a mischievous side to his personality. Once,
while staying at the railway quarters, Dhoni and a couple of his friends
covered themselves in white bedsheets and walked around in the complex
late in the night. The night guards were fooled into believing that
there were ghosts moving around in the complex. The story made big news
on the next day.
In the last decade when team India was struggling to find a good
wicket-keeper batsman, Rahul Dravid was the person team relied on
however it was not a good sign for Indian cricket. With players like
Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik already failing at the top level, Dhoni
was the only choice left for the selectors, the gamble paid off and
this small town boy took the world by surprise when he smashed 148 runs
in Vishakapatnam off only 123 deliveries announcing his capabilities at
the highest level against the fired attack of the Pakistan bowlers.
Following his good one-day form, Dhoni replaced Dinesh Karthik in
December 2005 as the Indian Test wicket-keeper. Dhoni scored 30 runs in
his debut match that was marred by rain. Dhoni came to the crease when
the team was struggling at 109/5 and as wickets kept falling around him,
he played an aggressive innings and was the last man dismissed. Dhoni
made his maiden half-century in the second Test and his quick scoring
rate (half century came off 51 balls) aided India to set a target of 436
and the Sri Lankans were bowled out for 247.
India toured Pakistan in January/February 2006 and Dhoni scored his
maiden century in the second Test at Faisalabad. India were left in a
tight spot as Dhoni was joined by Irfan Pathan with the team still 107
away from avoiding follow-on. Dhoni played his typical aggressive
innings as he scored his maiden test century in just 93 balls after
scoring his first fifty in just 34 deliveries. Dhoni followed his maiden
test century with some prosaic batting performances over the next three
matches.
Dhoni was named the captain of India Twenty 20 squad for the inaugural
ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa in September 2007. India was
crowned champions as Dhoni led the team to victory against Pakistan in a
thrilling contest. He then went on to become the ODI captain of the
Indian team for the seven-match ODI series against Australia in
September 2007.
He made his debut as full-time Test captain of India during the fourth
and final test against Australia at Nagpur in November 2008 replacing
Anil Kumble who was injured in the third test and who then announced his
retirement. Dhoni was vice-captain in this series up to that point.
India eventually won that Test thus clinching the series 2–0 and
retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Dhoni had previously captained
India on a stand-in basis against South Africa and Australia in 2008 and
2009 respectively. It was under his captaincy that India climbed to No.
1 in the ICC Test Rankings in December 2009.
After winning the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup for India against Sri Lanka
on April 2, 2011 with his match winning knock of unbeaten 91, Tendulkar
heaped praises on Dhoni, claiming him to be the best captain he has
played under. Tendulkar mentioned that it was Dhoni's calm influence
that was rubbing off on all his team-mates and even under such extreme
pressure from every corner the way Dhoni handles it and brings the best
out of him was just incredible.
Saurav Ganguly also said in an interview to a news channel that Dhoni is
the all time greatest captain of India and he has a great record to
support this credential. With numerous records against his name, Dhoni
is the arguably the best captain that Indian cricket has ever seen. The
star married Sakshi Singh Rawat on July 4, 2010.
Today on his birthday, team Pardaphash wishes Mahendra Singh Dhoni all the success in the years to come.
