Thala Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the helicopter man

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (About this sound pronunciation ; commonly known as MS Dhoni; born 7 July 1981), is an Indian cricketer who captained the Indian team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2016 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. An attacking right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest finishers in limited-overs cricket.[2][3][4][5] He is also regarded as one of the best wicket-keepers in world cricket and is known to have very fast hands.[6][7] He made his One Day International (ODI) debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh, and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka.

MS Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni January 2016 (cropped).jpg
Dhoni in January 2016
Personal information
Full name Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Born 7 July 1981 (age 36)
Ranchi, Bihar (now Jharkhand), India
Nickname Mahi, MSD, Captain Cool[1]
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Batting Right-handed
Bowling Right-arm medium
Role Wicket-keeper batsman
International information
National side
India (2004-present)
Test debut (cap 251) 2 December 2005 v Sri Lanka
Last Test 26 December 2014 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 158) 23 December 2004 v Bangladesh
Last ODI 17 December 2017 v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no. 7
T20I debut (cap 2) 1 December 2006 v South Africa
Last T20I 22 December 2017 v Sri Lanka
T20I shirt no. 7
Domestic team information
Years Team
1999/00–2003/04 Bihar
2004/05–present Jharkhand
2008–2015 Chennai Super Kings (squad no. 7)
2016–2017 Rising Pune Supergiant (squad no. 7)
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC T20Is
Matches 90 311 131 83
Runs scored 4,876 9,898 7,038 1,281
Batting average 38.09 51.55 36.84 35.20
100s/50s 6/33 10/67 9/47 0/1
Top score 224 183* 224 56
Balls bowled 96 36 126 –
Wickets 0 1 0 –
Bowling average – 31.00 – –
5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 –
10 wickets in match 0 0 0 –
Best bowling – 1/14 – –
Catches/stumpings 256/38 291/104 364/57 45/25
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 13 December 2017
Dhoni holds numerous captaincy records such as the most wins by an Indian captain in Tests and ODIs, and most back-to-back wins by an Indian captain in ODIs. He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007 and led the team to its first-ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the CB Series of 2007–08, the 2010 Asia Cup, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. In the final of the 2011 World Cup, Dhoni scored 91 not out off 79 balls handing India the victory for which he was awarded the Man of the Match. In June 2013, when India defeated England in the final of the Champions Trophy in England, Dhoni became the first captain to win all three ICC limited-overs trophies (World Cup, Champions Trophy and the World Twenty20)