The One and Only
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the most renowned, former Indian cricketers, born to a Rajput family in Ranchi, Jharkhand on 7th July 1981. Devaki Devi, MS Dhoni‘s mother, is a home-maker. Politician Narendra Singh Dhoni is his elder brother and Jayanti Gupta, his elder sibling, is an English teacher. His father Pan Singh was a MECON employee. Dhoni initially shone in badminton and football in his school and was nominated for these sports at the games of district and club level. His football coach sent him to play cricket with a regional cricket team, where he fascinated everybody with his wicket-keeping abilities. From 1995 to 1998, he was the Commando Cricket Club’s primary wicket-keeper. In 1997-98, MS Dhoni played for the Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship where he fascinated everyone with his performance. He focused on cricket sincerely after Class 10. However, he started his career in 2001 as a Travelling Ticket Examiner for the South Eastern Railway at Kharagpur Railway Station in West Bengal.
Even after family pressure to keep working, he continued to put in the hours on the cricket ground. But fate did not favour him, despite being selected for the East Zone Duleep Trophy team, he was unable to arrive at the ground for the tournament on time, in Agartala.
But that didn’t deter him. He kept going high, forcing the selectors to give heed to him. Dhoni’s Ranji Trophy and Deodhar Trophy victories did not go down, and the 2003-04 season finally bore good news. After successfully completing on the champion team in the Deodhar Trophy, he was chosen for India A’s tour to Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Dhoni got seven catches and four stumpings at Harare Sports Club, in the game against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club. Dhoni scored a half-century against Pakistan as a part of the multi-tournament with Kenya, Pakistan A and India A, aided India in reaching their mark of 223 runs. His excellent performance caught the eye of the then- Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly.
MS Dhoni has been a right-handed batsman who played in the middle order and wicket-keeper in the Indian team. The Indian cricket team has been under his captaincy from 2007 to 2017 in ODIs and T20s as well as the Test Cricket format from 2008 to 2014.
Owing to his birth date, Captain Cool, Dhoni famously wore Jersey number 7 and is known best for his “helicopter shot.”
MS Dhoni Achievements
India emerged victorious in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 along with winning the Asia Cups in 2010 and 2016, the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011, and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013, all under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
MS Dhoni, who has scored over 10,000 runs in One Day Internationals, is one of the most prolific run-scorers and is regarded as the greatest “finisher.”
He is regarded as one of the best captains and wicket-keeper in the world. He was the first and only keeper in ODI history to achieve 100 stumpings.
Numerous honours
- The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2007.
- The Padma Shri in 2009.
- The Padma Bhushan in 2018.
Dhoni was appointed captain of the ICC World Test XI for three consecutive years from 2009 to 2011.
Dhoni was elected captain of the ICC World Test XI for three consecutive years in 2009,2010 and 2011. He has also been named to an ICC World ODI XI squad a record eight times, including five times as captain.
In one-day international cricket, he has received 20 Man of the Match prizes and 6 Man of the Series titles. Besides, he was named Man of the Match twice in Test cricket.
The second Indian cricketer to earn the unofficial rank of Lieutenant Colonel by the Indian Territorial Army is MS Dhoni who was awarded the title in November 2011. He trained with the Parachute Regiment for over a month, after the 2019 World Cup semi-final loss.
The first cricketer to have been named ICC One-Day International Player of the Year for two years in a row, in 2008 and 2009 is MS Dhoni.
In 2012, Dhoni was listed sixteenth by SportsPro and ranked him as the world’s sixteenth most commercially viable athlete.
Dhoni’s Net Worth and Ownership
He is a co-owner of Chennaiyin FC, an Indian Super League club.
He is among the three most rich cricketers in the world. MS Dhoni’s wealth has remained at a whopping Rs 826 crore rupees since his retirement on August 15, 2020. MS Dhoni is expected to have a net worth of $ 110 million by 2021.
Ms Dhoni’s annual salary is Rs 50 crore. As a result, Dhoni is the costliest player on the planet. After Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, he is India’s most expensive cricketer. In terms of market valuation, Dhoni outperforms both. Dhoni does TV commercials for various organizations in addition to cricket like MasterCard, GoDaddy, and motor oil. Numerous brands issue him notifications worth crores of money, and he bills 40-50 lakh for TV advertisements.
His biography was made into the famous film, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story by director Neeraj Pandey casting Sushant Singh Rajput in the lead role.
MS Dhoni In IPL
The Chennai Super Kings signed Dhoni to a one-year deal worth US$1.5 million making him the priciest player in the first season of the IPL auction. Chennai Super Kings was the three-time winner of the Indian Premier League in 2010, 2011, and 2018. Following CSK’s two-year suspension. Chennai Super Kings made a comeback in the 2018 IPL season and Dhoni was chosen to head the team once more. CSK reached their third IPL championship with the help of MS Dhoni who scored 455 runs in the competition. Dhoni captained CSK again in the 2019 IPL, which appeared as one of the season’s best squads.
After he retired from International Cricket, there have been speculations over his tenure in CSK. However, the CEO of Chennai Super Kings, Kasi Viswanathan told that 2021 might not be the last season that Dhoni will be playing the IPL.
MS Dhoni Family
On July 4, 2010, Dhoni wed Sakshi Singh Rawat, a former classmate from DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali. “She originally hailed from Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Sakshi was pursuing hotel management and was interning at the Taj Bengal, Kolkata.
On February 6, 2015, MS Dhoni became the father of a baby daughter, Ziva. Dhoni was the captain of the Indian team at the time of her birth, and he was in Australia for the 2015 Cricket World Cup. However, he did not return to India right away, stating, “I am on national service, other things can wait.”
Now and then, a cricketer comes who transforms the way the game is played. MS Dhoni is India’s most memorable game-changer He is the one who young and upcoming cricketers look up to. MS Dhoni is not only a legendary name in India but around the entire world.
