Mahendra Singh Dhoni by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

---

Player:

MS Dhoni

---

DateLine: 18th June 2009

 

Dhoni has brought a lot of success for India since taking over the reins. His first assignment as skipper was the T20 World Championship in South Africa in 2007, where the side, without the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, came out as eventual champions. That was the beginning of a ride which saw the Indian team under him defeating Australia in Australia, Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. The latest casualties in the list were the Kiwi side who were defeated by an Indian side after 41 years. He looked a tad out of touch in the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup and he would be looking forward to a good series in West Indies. India for the first time under his captaincy fell to such low levels in a big international competition and the swashbuckler from Jharkhand would surely be looking for redemption. Dhoni has been swashbuckling in front of the stumps and fluent behind them. It took MSD four years to make his place in the national side since making his domestic debut in 1999-2000. After a disastrous debut in which he got run out for a duck, he came back with a bang scoring 148 in just his fifth ODI played against Pakistan. Then came the defining knock, when this lad from the hinterlands of Jharkhand, went on to score a colossal 183 not out against Sri Lanka, smashing Gilchrist's record of the highest score by a wicketkeeper batsman.