Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 10 astonishing achievements:- India’s captain marvel M S Dhoni holds a lot of records as a captain, as a wicket-keeper and also as a wicket-keeper batsman and finisher in limited overs Cricket. He took over the captaincy reign from Rahul Dravid in 2007 in ODIs and led the team to its first-ever bilateral ODI series wins in Australia and New Zealand.
It was under his captaincy that India won the inaugural ICC WT20 in 2007 and also climbed to No. 1 in the ICC Test Rankings in December 2009. After that he managed to lead India in a series-leveling Test series against the South Africans in February 2010. India also managed to draw the Test series 1–1 in South Africa later that year.
Dhoni also successfully led India to win in the ICC World Cup 2011 hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The Cup was won after 28 years and it was Dhoni the man who himself engineered the win in the final with his magnificent 91 not out.
Here are the 10 astonishing achievements by India’s captain cool MS Dhoni:-
- Dhoni is the first ever wicket-keeper to lead India in a Test match.
- Dhoni is India’s most successful captain in Test cricket with 27 wins in 60 matches.
- Dhoni is only the second Indian captain after Sourav Ganguly to win his first Test both at home and abroad. Dhoni led India in Test for the first time in the absence of Anil Kumble against the Proteas at home in 2008 in Kanpur and won the Test match, and in an overseas Test against the Kiwis at Hamilton in March 2009, which was won by India by 10 wickets.
- Dhoni has the highest run-aggregate as Indian captain – 3,454 runs in 60 Tests.
- Dhoni did not lose any of his first 11 Tests – longest unbeaten streak for any player since making captaincy debut.
- Under Dhoni India won 6 consecutive Tests between February and November 2013 – the longest winning streak for any Indian captain.
- Dhoni is the only Indian keeper to score 4,000 runs and effect 200 dismissals.
- Dhoni is the first Indian captain to win a Test match on New Zealand soil in 33 years when he led India to 10-wicket win at Hamilton in March 2009. Before him, Sunil Gavaskar had won a Test at New Zealand soil way back in January 1976.
- Dhoni is only the eighth Indian captain to start his captaincy stint with a win (v South Africa at Kanpur in April 2008).
- Dhoni is the only Indian captain to win five consecutive series (between 2008 and 2010).