Fulll Details/Photos: Mahendra Singh Dhoni

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Test career

Test Career of Dhoni. Brown line indicates 10 innings average while the orange line indicates career average progression.




Following his good one-day form against Sri Lanka, Dhoni replaced Dinesh Karthik in December 2005 as the Indian Test wicket-keeper.^[47] 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.^[48] 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.^[49]


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.^[50]




Dhoni at fielding practice.


Dhoni followed his maiden test century with some prosaic batting performances over the next three matches, one against Pakistan that India lost and two against England that had India holding a 1–0 lead going into the test match. Dhoni was the top scorer in India's first innings in the third test at Wankhede Stadium as his 64 aided India post a respectable 279 in reply to England's 400. However Dhoni and the Indian fielders dropped too many catches and missed many dismissal chances including a key stumping opportunity of Andrew Flintoff (14).^[51] Dhoni failed to collect the Harbhajan Singh delivery cleanly as Flintoff went on to make 36 more runs as England set a target of 313 for the home team, a target that India were never in the reckoning. A batting collapse saw the team being dismissed for 100 and Dhoni scored just 5 runs and faced criticism for his wicket-keeping lapses as well as his shot selections.


On the West Indies tour in 2006, Dhoni scored a quick and aggressive 69 in the first Test at Antigua. The rest of the series was unremarkable for Dhoni as he scored 99 runs in the remaining 6 innings but his wicket-keeping s****s improved and Dhoni finished the series with 13 catches and 4 stumpings. In the test series in South Africa, Dhoni's scores of 34 and 47 were not sufficient to save the second test against the Proteas as India lost the test series 2–1, squandering the chance to build on their first ever Test victory in South Africa (achieved in the first Test match). Dhoni's bruised hands ruled him out of the third test match.^[52]
On the fourth day of the first Test match at Antigua Recreation Ground, St John's, Antigua during India's tour of West Indies, 2006, Dhoni's flick off Dave Mohammed to the midwicket region was caught by Daren Ganga. As the batsman started to walk back, captain Dravid declared the innings when confusion started as the umpires were not certain if the fielder stepped on the ropes and Dhoni stayed for the umpire's verdict. While the replays were inconclusive, the captain of the West Indies side, Brian Lara, wanted Dhoni to walk-off based on the fielder's assertion of the catch. The impasse continued for more than 15 minutes and Lara's temper was on display with finger wagging against the umpires and snatching the ball from umpire Asad Rauf. Ultimately, Dhoni walked-off and Dravid's declaration was effected but the game was delayed, and Lara's action was criticized by the commentators and former players. Lara was called by the match referee for explanation of his actions but was not fined by the match referee.^[53]


Dhoni scored two centuries in Sri Lanka's tour of India in 2009, a series of 3 matches in which he led India to a 2–0 victory. With this feat, India soared up to the number 1 position in Test cricket for the first time in history. India scored 726–9 (decl) in the third match of this series, which is their highest test total ever.^[54]

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Captain of India





Dhoni was named the captain of India Twenty 20 squad for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa in September 2007.^[55] India were crowned champions as Dhoni led the team to victory against Pakistan in a thrilling contest.^[56] He, then went on to become the ODI captain of the Indian team for the seven-match ODI series against Australia in September 2007.^[57] 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 retired from cricket after the third test.^[58] India eventually won that Test thus clinching the series 2–0 and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.^[59] 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 that he managed to lead India in a series leveling world championship of Test against the South Africans in Feb 2010. As a result India managed No. 1 spot in the ICC Test Rankings.


Two-match ban

Dhoni was handed a 2 match ban from playing in the ODI series against Sri Lanka for the team's slow over-rate during the second one-dayer in Nagpur (18 December 2009) by ICC match referee Jeff Crowe.^[60]


World Cup

Under Dhoni's captaincy India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup against Sri Lanka

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Cricket performance

ODI Cricket

ODI career records by opposition
#	Opponent	Matches	Runs	Average	High Score	100s	50s	Catches	Stumping
1	Africa XI[61]	3	174	87.00	139*	1	0	3	3
2	Australia	23	690	43.12	124	1	3	26	9
3	Bangladesh	9	247	61.75	101*	1	1	9	6
4	Bermuda	1	29	29.00	29	0	0	1	0
5	England	18	501	33.40	96	0	3	19	7
6	Hong Kong	1	109	-	109*	1	0	1	3
7	New Zealand	9	269	67.25	84*	0	2	7	2
8	Pakistan	23	920	54.11	148	1	7	22	6
9	Scotland	1	-	-	-	-	-	2	-
10	South Africa	10	196	24.50	107	0	1	7	1
11	Sri Lanka	38	1514	63.08	183*	2	12	38	9
12	West Indies	18	499	49.90	95	0	3	16	4
13	Zimbabwe	2	123	123.00	67*	0	2	0	1
Total		156	5271	51.67	183*	7	34	151	51

ODI Centuries:

ODI centuries
#	Runs	Match	Against	Stadium	City/Country	Year
1	148	5	Pakistan	ACA-VDCA Stadium	Vishakapatnam, India	2005
2	183*	22	Sri Lanka	Sawai Mansingh Stadium	Jaipur, India	2005
3	139*	74	Africa XI[61]	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai, India	2007
4	109*	109	Hong Kong	National Stadium	Karachi, Pakistan	2008
5	124	143	Australia	VCA Stadium	Nagpur, India	2009
6	107	152	Sri Lanka	VCA Stadium	Nagpur, India	2009
7	101*	156	Bangladesh	Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium	Dhaka, Bangladesh	2010

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ODI records

• On 31 October 2005 Dhoni scored 183* runs of just 145 balls against Sri Lanka in Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, which is the highest score made by any batsman in the second innings (surpassing Lara's previous record of 153).^[32]
  • The innings featured 10 Sixes - the most by an Indian in an innings, and the fourth highest in ODI cricket after the 12 scored by Xavier Marshall of the West Indies, and 11 scored by both ST Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi.^[62]
  • He broke Adam Gilchrist's record of 172 for the highest score made by a wicket keeper.
  • The innings set the record for the most number of runs scored in boundaries (120 – 15x4; 10x6) breaking the record held by Saeed Anwar. However this was later broken by Herschelle Gibbs (126 runs in boundaries – 21x4; 7x6) against Australia during his knock of 175.
  • The score of 183* equaled Ganguly's innings during the 1999 Cricket World Cup as the highest individual score against Sri Lanka.
• Among Indian batsmen who have played more than 50 matches, Dhoni has the highest average.^[63] Dhoni's batting average is also the highest amongst wicketkeepers in ODIs.
• In June 2007, Dhoni(139*) and Mahela Jayawardene(107)^[61] set a new world record for the sixth wicket partnership of 218 runs against Africa XI during the Afro-Asia Cup.^[64]
  • Dhoni passed Shaun Pollock's record for the highest individual score by a number seven batsman in one-day internationals during his unbeaten innings of 139.^[65] Incidentally, Pollock record stood for just three days as his score of 130 came in the first match of the 2007 Afro-Asia Cup while Dhoni's century came in the third and final match of the series.
  • Dhoni also holds the records of the most dismissals in an innings by an Indian wicketkeeper and joint International (with Adam Gilchrist) with 6 dismissals (5 catches and one stumping) against England at Headlingly 2 September 2007.
  • Dhoni holds the Indian record of most dismissals in ODIs. He went past Nayan Mongia's 154 for India on 14 November 2008 when he caught Ian Bell off Zaheer Khan at Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground, Rajkot. However including 3 ODIs against Africa XI, his 155th dismissal was TM Dilshan caught off Munaf Patel at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on 24 August 2008.
• Dhoni, when he was on four during his innings of 23 against Sri Lanka at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Saturday, completed 4,000 runs in ODIs. Having already effected 165 dismissals (125 catches + 40 stumpings), Dhoni became the sixth wicketkeeper after Adam Gilchrist, Andy Flower, Alec Stewart, Mark Boucher and Kumar Sangakkara to complete the "double" of 4,000 runs and 100 dismissals in the history of ODIs. Dhoni’s feat of completing the "double" of 4,000 runs and 100 dismissals in only 114 innings is a world record. He is the youngest wicket-keeper batsman to do so (27 years and 208 days).

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Man of the Series Awards

S No	Series (Opponents)	Season	Series Performance
1	Sri Lanka in India ODI Series	2005/06	346 Runs (7 Matches & 5 Innings, 1x100, 1x50); 6 Catches & 3 Stumpings
2[66]	India in Bangladesh ODI Series	2007	127 Runs (2 Matches & 2 Innings, 1x50); 1 Catches & 2 Stumpings
3	India in Sri Lanka ODI Series	2008	193 Runs (5 Matches & 5 Innings, 2x50); 3 Catches & 1 Stumping
4	India in West Indies ODI Series	2009	182 Runs (4 Matches & 3 Innings with an average of 91); 4 Catches & 1 Stumping