Mahendra Singh Dhoni Biography

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is an Indian cricketer and former Captain of the Indian national cricket team; however, he captains the team only in limited-overs' format now. This spectacular and promising wicket-keeper/batsman lovingly called 'Mahi' filled in the much-awaited void in Team India's line-up, and since then has proved his worth. With his swashbuckling attitude and sporting a unique hairstyle, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become a popular cricketer and marketing icon in India. He is an aggressive right-handed batsman and wicket-keeper, who took Indian cricket by storm with his unwavering confidence and sheer brute force. He is one of the very few Indian players who can profess to rival Sachin Tendulkar's popularity. MS Dhoni's ability to consistently hit the ball out of stadiums with his favourite Helicopter and Paddlesweep shots enthrals entire stadium as well as television viewers to a new frenzy. 

Background

Dhoni, born on 7 July 1981 in Ranchi, Jharkhand to Pan Singh and Devaki Devi has an elder sister, Jayanti and brother Narendra Singh Dhoni. Originally his family belonged to Almora district of Uttarakhand. He studied at the DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir School in Ranchi, Jharkhand. During his school days, he used to play badminton and football and in fact was the goalkeeper of his football team. Once, he was sent by his football coach to play cricket at a local cricket club. It was in this match that he impressed everyone with his wicket-keeping skills which resulted in getting him a regular post of the wicketkeeper at the Commando Cricket Club. In fact, Dhoni focused on cricket after his 10th standard. From 2001 to 2003, he worked as a Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) at the Kharagpur Railway Station under South Eastern Railway in Midnapore (W).

Personal Life 

Dhoni married Sakshi Singh Rawat on 4 July 2010. The couple is blessed with a daughter, Ziva who was born on 6 February 2015.

MS Dhoni Facts and information
Full name Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Born 7 July 1981 (age36 as in 2017), Ranchi, Bihar, India
Hometown Almora, Uttarakhand
Nickname Mahi, MS, MSD, Captain Cool
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Batting style batsman
Bowling style medium
Role Batsman and Wicket-keeper, Indian Captain
National side India
Major Teams India, Asia XI, Bihar, Chennai Super Kings, Jharkhand, Rising Pune Supergiants
Test debut (cap 251) 2 December 2005 v Sri Lanka at Chennai
Last Test 26 December 2014 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 158) 23 December 2004 v Bangladesh at Chittagong
Last ODI 15 June 2016 v Zimbabwe
ODI shirt no. 7
T20I debut (cap 2) 1 December 2006 v South Africa at Johannesburg
Last T20I 28 August 2016 v West Indies
Domestic Team Information  
Years Team
1999/00-2003/04 Bihar
2004/05-present Jharkhand
2008-2015 Chennai Super Kings
2016-present Rising Pune Supergiants


Career

Dhoni began his career in 1998 by playing for Bihar U-19 team. He also played for East Zone U-19 team. In 1999-2000, he made a debut for Bihar in Ranji Trophy. His brilliant performances in the Deodhar Trophy, Duleep Trophy and India 'A' tour of Kenya, brought him to the notice of the national team selectors. He was then selected to play for the Indian Cricket team in 2004, where he made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in Chittagong.

This legend grew to another level when under his captaincy India won in the inaugural ICC World T20 in 2007 and bagging the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008 and 2010 against Australia. Again, in 2011, he led the team to win the World Cup in the 50-overs format followed by the Champions Trophy in 2013; taking his Test and ODI captaincy records to be 'the best till date' among all the Indian captains.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has come a long way in cricket since with his sterling performances he has rescued India from many a tight positions. During his illustrious career, Dhoni has played 90 Tests scoring 4876 runs with his highest being 224 against Australia at Chennai in 2013. His amazing wicket=keeping statistics include 256 catches and 38 stumping.

Dhoni has so far played 265 ODI matches scoring 8620 runs, with a staggering 183 not-out as his highest score against Sri Lanka, in Jaipur in 2005-06. His ODI wicket-keeping statistics include 246 catches and 85 stumping. 

Doni also captained the Chennai Super Kings Team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. Under his captaincy, the team won two IPL titles as well as the Champions League Twenty20 in 2010. 

Awards

On many occasions, Dhoni received the Man of the Series and the Man of the Match Awards; with his first Man of the Match Award in Test series in 2008 against Australia. With Sri Lanka playing ODI Series in India in 2005-06 M S Dhoni was awarded the Man of the Series for the first time. For two consecutive years; in 2008 and 2009, Dhoni was a recipient of the ICC Player of the year award. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award (2007) and the Padma Shri was bestowed on him in 2009.

Retirement

Dhoni announced his retirement from International Test Cricket on 30 December 2014 after the test between India and Australia in Melbourne was a 'Draw'. The reason behind his immediate retirement, he said was the strain of playing cricket in too many formats. He wished to concentrate better on ODIs and T-20 matches. However, on 04 January 2017, he stepped down from the position of captain of the Indian ODI and T20I cricket teams, though reportedly he informed the board about his availability for selection for the upcoming series against England.

Some of his Other Numerous Achievements are: