Personal life:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni was born in Ranchi, Jharkhand to Pan Singh and Devaki Devi.[2] His paternal village Lvali is in the Lamgarha block of the Almora District of Uttarakhand. Dhoni’s parents, moved from Uttarakhand to Ranchi where Pan Singh worked in junior management positions in MECON. Dhoni has a sister Jayanti and a brother Narendra. Dhoni had long hair which he has now shortened; he cut it because he wanted to look like his favourite film star John Abraham.[3] Dhoni is a fan of Adam Gilchrist, and his childhood idols were cricket teammate Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and singer Lata Mangeshkar.[4][5]
Dhoni studied at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali, (now the school is known as JVM , Shyamli, Ranchi) Ranchi, Jharkahnd where he initially excelled in badminton and football and was selected at district and club level in these sports. Dhoni was a goalkeeper for his 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 with his wicket-keeping skills and became the regular wicket keeper at the Commando cricket club (1995 - 1998). Based on his performance at club cricket, he was picked for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship and he performed well.[3] Dhoni focused on cricket after his 10th standard.[6]
He was recognized for his efforts in the 2003/04 season, especially in the ODI format and was picked for the India A squad for a tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya.[18] Against the Zimbabwe XI in Harare Sports Club, Dhoni had his best wicket-keeping effort with 7 catches and 4 stumpings in the match.[19] In the tri-nation tournament involving Kenya, India ’A’ and Pakistan ’A’, Dhoni helped India ’A’ chase their target of 223 against Pakistan ’A’ with an half-century.[20] Stressing on his performance, he scored back to back centuries - 120[21] and 119*[22] against the same squad. Dhoni scored 362 runs in 7 matches (6 innings, Ave:72.40), and his performance in the series received attention from the then captain - Sourav Ganguly[23] amongst others. However, the India ’A’ team coach Sandeep Patil recommended Karthik for a place in the Indian squad as wicket-keeper/batsman.[24]
ODI Career of Dhoni.
The Indian team in the 2000s saw the use of Rahul Dravid as the wicket-keeper to ensure that the wicket-keeper spot didn’t lack in batting talent.[23] The Indian cricket establishment also saw the entry of wicket-keeper/batsmen from the junior ranks with talents like Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik - both India U-19 Captains in the test squads.[23] With Dhoni making a mark in the India-A squad, he was picked in the ODI squad for the Bangladesh tour in 2004/05.[25] Dhoni did not have a great start to his ODI career, getting run out for a duck on debut.[26] In spite of an average series against Bangladesh, Dhoni was picked for the Pakistan ODI series.[27] In the second match of the series, Dhoni in his fifth one-day international, scored 148 in Vishakapatnam off only 123 deliveries. Dhoni’s 148 erased the earlier record for the highest score by an Indian wicketkeeper, [28] a record that he would re-write before the end of the year.
Dhoni had few batting opportunities in the first two games of the Sri Lankan bilateral ODI series (October-November 2005) and was promoted to No. 3 in the third ODI at Sawai Mansingh Stadium (Jaipur). Sri Lanka had set India a target of 299 after a Kumar Sangakkara century and in reply. India lost Tendulkar early. Dhoni was promoted to accelerate the scoring and ended the game with an unbeaten 183 off 145 balls, winning the game for India[29] - an innings described in Wisden Almanack (2006) as ’Uninhibited, yet anything but crude’.[30] The innings set various records including the highest score in ODI cricket in the second innings, [31] a record that still stands. Dhoni ended the series with the highest run aggregate (346)[32] and was awarded the Man of the series award for his efforts. In December 2005, Dhoni was signed by BCCI to a B-grade contract, skipping the initial C-grade level due to his performance on the cricketing field.[33].
India scored 328 in 50 overs with Dhoni contributing 68 in their first match of 2006 against Pakistan. However the team finished poorly, scoring just 43 runs in the last eight overs and lost the match due to Duckworth-Lewis method.[34] In the third match of the series, Dhoni came in with India in a precarious situation and scored 72 runs off just 46 balls that included 13 boundaries to help India take a 2-1 lead in the series.[35][36] The final match of the series had a repeat performance as Dhoni scored 77 runs off 56 balls to enable India win the series 4-1.[37] In recognition of his consistent ODI performances, Dhoni overtook Ricky Ponting as number one in the ICC ODI rankings for batsmen on April 20, 2006.[38] His reign lasted just a week as Adam Gilchrist’s performance against Bangladesh moved him to the top spot.[39]
Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, sometimes abbreviated as MS Dhoni, pronunciation (help·info) (Hindi) (born July 7, 1981 in Lavali Vilage Almora, Uttarakhand) is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Indian team. Initially recognized as an extravagantly flamboyant and destructive batsman, Dhoni has come to be regarded as one of the coolest heads to captain the Indian ODI side. Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, CB Series of 2007-08 and IDEA Cup India-Sri Lanka ODI Series of 2008, the first ever bilateral ODI series win of India in Sri Lanka and The Border-Gavaskar trophy 2008 in which they beat Australia 2-0 thus letting India regain its spot at No.2 in world test rankings(fallen to No.3 after Sri lanka tour). Dhoni also recently captained the ODI team that beat England in the series 5-0.Dhoni is currently ranked the best ODI batsman in the world by the ICC. [1] Mahendra Singh Dhoni was awarded the ODI Player of the Year award in 2008, the first Indian player to achieve this feat.
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