Lifestyle Of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MS Dhoni), Early life and background, Early Career , Breakthrough, Domestic career, Playing style, Personal life, NB Inspire

 Lifestyle Of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MS Dhoni), Early life and background, Early Career , Breakthrough, Domestic career, Playing style, Personal life, NB Inspire

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (/məˈheɪndrə sɪŋ dhæˈnɪ/ (listen); born 7 July 1981) is an Indian professional cricketer who was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is a right-handed wicket-keeper batsman. He led the team to three ICC trophies including the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Under his captaincy, India won the Asia Cup two times, in 2010 and 2016. India also won ICC Test Championship Mace two times in 2010 and 2011 under his leadership. He is considered as one of the greatest Captains and Wicket Keeper-Batsmen of all time. Entire his 15 year long international career, Dhoni has won several awards and accolades.

In Indian domestic cricket he played for Bihar and Jharkhand Cricket team. He is the captain of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League. He captained the side to championships in the 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2021 editions of IPL league. Also under his captaincy Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Won Champions League T20 two times, in 2010 and 2014. He vacated the captaincy on 24 March 2022, being replaced by Ravindra Jadeja. He became the captain again after Jadeja resigned on 30 April 2022.

Dhoni made his ODI debut on 23 December 2004, against Bangladesh in Chittagong,[17] and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka.[18] He played his first T20I also a year later against South Africa.[19] In 2007, he took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid.[20] In 2008, he was selected as Test Captain. His captaincy record in this format was mixed, successfully leading India to a series win against New Zealand in 2008 and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (home series in 2010 and 2013) against Australia while losing to Sri Lanka, Australia, England, and South Africa by big margins in away conditions.

He announced his retirement from Test format on 30 December 2014,and stepped down as captain of T20Is and ODIs in 2017. On 15 August 2020, Dhoni retired from all formats of international cricket.He continues to play in the IPL.

Early life and background

Dhoni was born in Ranchi, Bihar (now in Jharkhand) and hails from a Hindu Rajput family.He is the youngest of three children of Pan Singh and Devaki Devi. His paternal village Lwali, is in Jainti Tehsil, Lamgara block of the Almora District of Uttarakhand.[32] His parents moved from Uttarakhand to Ranchi, Jharkhand where his father worked as a pump operator in junior management position in MECON Colony situated in Doranda area in Ranchi.Unlike Dhoni, his uncle and cousins ​​spell their surname as Dhauni.

Previously Dhoni was the goalkeeper for his DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir school's football team,[34] but after seeing his goalkeeping skills, coach Keshav Ranjan Banerjee, one who inspired Dhoni to be a cricketer, picked him to play cricket for his school team.[ 35] His exceptional wicketkeeping skills allowed him to become the regular wicketkeeper 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, where he performed well.

From 2001 to 2003, Dhoni worked as a Traveling Ticket Examiner (TTE) at Kharagpur railway station under South Eastern Railway in Midnapore (W), a district in West Bengal.

Early Career 

Junior cricket in Bihar

In 1998, Dhoni was selected by Deval Sahay, a former Bihar Cricket Association Vice President and Ranchi District Cricket President, to play for the Central Coal Fields Limited (CCL) team.[38] Till 1998 Dhoni, who was in 12th grade, had never played professional cricket. At CCL, he got an opportunity to bat higher up the order, where he performed exceptionally, which had helped CCL move to the A division.[39] Deval Sahay, impressed by his performance, pushed for his selection in the Bihar team.[40] Dhoni moved to the Ranchi team, the junior Bihar cricket team and eventually the senior Bihar Ranji Team within one year.

In the 1998–99 Cooch Behar Trophy, Dhoni played for the U-19 Bihar team and scored 176 runs in 5 matches (7 innings). However, Bihar finished fourth in the group of six and did not make it to the quarter-finals. Dhoni was not picked for the East Zone U-19 squad (CK Nayudu Trophy) or Rest of India squad (MA Chidambaram Trophy and Vinoo Mankad Trophy). In the 1999–2000 Cooch Behar Trophy, the Bihar U-19 cricket team made it to the finals, where Dhoni's 84 helped Bihar post a total of 357.[43] Nevertheless, Bihar's efforts were thwarted by Punjab's 839 with Dhoni's future teammate Yuvraj Singh making 358.[44][45] Dhoni's contribution in the tournament included 488 runs (9 matches, 12 innings), 5 fifties, 17 catches and 7 stumpings.[46] Dhoni made it to the East Zone U-19 squad for the CK Nayudu trophy in the 1999–2000 season but scored only 97 runs in four matches, as East Zone lost all four matches and finished last in the tournament.

International career

tart of ODI career

The Indian ODI team in the early 2000s saw Rahul Dravid as the wicket-keeper to ensure that the wicket-keeper spot didn't lack in batting talent. The team 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) named in the Test squads. With Dhoni making a mark in the India A squad, he was picked in the ODI squad for the Bangladesh tour in 2004/05.Dhoni did not have a great start to his ODI career, getting run out for a duck on debut. In spite of an average series against Bangladesh, Dhoni was picked for the Pakistan ODI series.

Breakthrough

In the second match of the series, Dhoni, in his fifth one-day international, scored 148 in Visakhapatnam off only 123 deliveries. Dhoni's 148 surpassed the earlier record for the highest score by an Indian wicket-keeper, 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. The innings was described in Wisden Almanack (2006) as 'Uninhibited, yet anything but crude'. The innings set various records including the highest individual score in ODI cricket in the second innings, a record only broken after seven years by Shane Watson.Dhoni ended the series with the highest run aggregate (346) and was awarded the Man of the Series award for his efforts. In December 2005, Dhoni was rewarded a B-grade contract by the BCCI.

Dhoni bowling in the nets. He rarely bowled at international level.

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 the Duckworth-Lewis method. 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. 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. Due to his consistent ODI performances, Dhoni overtook Ricky Ponting as number one in the ICC ODI Rankings for batsmen on 20 April 2006, becoming the fastest batsman to do so, in 42 innings. His reign lasted just a week as Adam Gilchrist's performance against Bangladesh moved him to the top spot.

Two canceled series in Sri Lanka, one due to the withdrawal of South Africa from the Unitech Cup due to security concerns[84] and the replacement three-match ODI bilateral series against Sri Lanka washed due to rain,[85] was India's prelude to another disappointing tournament – ​​DLF Cup 2006-07. Dhoni scored 43 runs as the team lost twice in three games and did not qualify for the finals. India's lack of preparation showed in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy as they lost to West Indies and Australia, though Dhoni scored a half-century against West Indies. The story of the ODI series in South Africa was the same for both Dhoni and India as Dhoni scored 139 runs in 4 matches and India lost the series 4–0. From the start of the West Indies ODI series, Dhoni had played 16 matches, hit just two fifties and averaged 25.93. Dhoni received criticism on his wicket-keeping technique from former wicket-keeper Syed Kirmani. Yet, for his performances in 2006, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC.

Test career

Following his one-day performance against Sri Lanka, Dhoni replaced Dinesh Karthik in December 2005 as the Indian teams' Test wicket-keeper.[128] Dhoni scored 30 runs in his debut match, that was marred by rain. Dhoni came to the crease when the team was at 109/5 and as wickets kept falling in quick succession, he played an aggressive innings in which he was the last man to be dismissed.[129] Dhoni made his maiden half-century in the second Test and his quick scoring rate (50 off 51 balls) helped India set a target of 436, where the Sri Lankans were then bowled out for 247.

India toured Pakistan in January–February 2006 and Dhoni scored his maiden century in the second Test at Faisalabad. India was struggling, where Dhoni along with Irfan Pathan tried to recover, with the team still needing 107 runs to avoid a follow-on. Dhoni played in his naturally aggressive style as he brought up his maiden Test century in 93 balls, after scoring the first fifty in 34 deliveries.

Dhoni followed up the century with respectable batting performances over the next three matches, one against Pakistan that India lost and two against England that had India holding a 1–0 lead. Dhoni was the top scorer in India's first innings in the third Test at Wankhede Stadium as his 64 helped India post 279 in reply to England's 400. However, Dhoni and the Indian fielders dropped catches and missed many dismissal chances, including a key stumping opportunity of Andrew Flintoff (14).[132] Dhoni failed to collect the Harbhajan Singh delivery cleanly as Flintoff went on to make 36 more runs as England set a target of 313 for the home team, a target that India was never in danger of danger. A batting collapse saw the team being dismissed for 100 and Dhoni scored just 5 runs and faced criticism for his wicket-keeping lapses as well as his shot selection.

On the West Indies tour in 2006, Dhoni scored a quick and aggressive 69 in the first Test at Antigua. The rest of the series was unremarkable for Dhoni as he scored 99 runs in the remaining 6 improvements but his wicket-keeping skills and he finished the series with 13 catches and 4 stumpings. In the Test series in South Africa later that year, Dhoni's scores of 34 and 47 were not sufficient to save the second Test against the Proteas, as India lost the series 2–1, squandering the chance to build on their first ever Test victory in South Africa (achieved in the first Test match). Dhoni's bruised hands ruled him out of the third Test match.

On the fourth day of the first Test match at Antigua Recreation Ground, St John's, Antigua during India's tour of West Indies, 2006, Dhoni's flick off Dave Mohammed to the midwicket region was caught by Daren Ganga. As the batsman started to walk back, captain Dravid declared the innings when the confusion started as the umpires were not certain if the fielder stepped on the ropes and Dhoni stayed for the umpire's verdict. While the replays were inconclusive, the captain of the West Indies side, Brian Lara, wanted Dhoni to walk off based on the fielder's assertion of the catch. The impasse continued for more than 15 minutes and Lara's temper was on display with finger-wagging against the umpires and snatching the ball from umpire Asad Rauf. Ultimately, Dhoni walked off and Dravid's declaration was effected but the game was delayed, and Lara's action was criticized by the commentators and former players. Lara was summoned by the match referee to give an explanation of his actions, but he was not fined.

Dhoni scored two centuries in Sri Lanka's tour of India in 2009, a series of three matches in which he led India to a 2–0 victory. With this feat, India soared up to the number one position in Test cricket for the first time in history. India scored 726–9 (decl) in the third match of this series, which was their highest Test total then.

He played his last series in the 2014–15 season in India's tour of Australia captaining India in the second and third tests; losing the second and drawing the third, trailing the series 2–0 before the Sydney Test. Following the third Test in Melbourne, Dhoni announced his retirement from the format. In his last Test, he effected nine dismissals (eight catches and a stumping), and in the process, went past Kumar Sangakkara in the record for stumpings with 134 (in all three formats combined).[138] He also set a record for effecting the most dismissals in a match by an Indian wicketkeeper until it was broken by Wriddhiman Saha in 2018.He finished his last innings unbeaten making 24 runs.

Domestic career

He debuted in first class and List A Cricket in the season of 1999–2000. In domestic cricket circuit he played for the teams such as Bihar, Jharkhand, India A, Air India Blue, Indian Board President's XI, Rajasthan Cricket Association President's XI, East Zone, Rest of India, East zone under 19, Chennai Super Kings, Rising Pune Supergiant. In BCCI Corporate trophy he played for Indian government owned Air India airlines's Air India team until his resignation from the company in 2013. In 2009, BCCI Corporate trophy Dhoni scored 106 runs playing for Air India Blue team against 'India Revenue' team. In the inning he hit 7 sixes and 7 fours at Chandigarh.

Indian Premier League

Dhoni was contracted by the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for US$1.5 million. This made him the most expensive player in the IPL for the first season auctions.[148] Under his captaincy, CSK won the 2010, 2011, 2018 and the 2021 Indian Premier League titles and the 2010 and 2014 Champions League T20 titles and ended up as a runner-up in the 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2019 league seasons.

MS Dhoni became the first player to play 200 T20 matches for Super Kings. Dhoni is at the top of the list of most matches played in the Indian Premier League. Dhoni is also one of the three captains to have won the Indian Premier League twice, with CSK.

In 2015, the Chennai Super Kings got banned from the IPL for 2 years by R.M. Lodha from the committee of Supreme Court of India. They were banned due to the illegal betting of one of their officials, Gurunath Meiyappan.[154] He was arrested with charges of spot-fixing[155] According to Dhoni, it was the darkest period of his career. He said "The biggest crime that I can commit is not a murder, it is actually match-fixing".

In 2016, Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS), a debuting IPL franchise team made him captain but after poor performance of the team in that season they removed Dhoni from captain's position and chose Steve Smith, then Australian national team captain, for the post. Dhoni played as wicketkeeper batsman in 2017 season for RPS.

In the 2018 IPL season, CSK returned to IPL, and he was again appointed to lead the franchise by the franchise. Dhoni scored 455 runs in that season and led his side to their third IPL title.

In the 2020 & 2021 seasons of the IPL, Dhoni failed to perform where he scored 200 runs in 14 innings in 2020 and 116 runs in 16 innings with an average of 15.29 in 2021 IPL season.

He led the franchise to 4th title in 2021 Indian Premier League season. Dhoni got retained by CSK for ₹12 Cr, before IPL 2022 player's auction.[160] He stepped down from captaincy on 24 March 2022, where Ravindra Jadeja became the new captain.However, on 30 April 2022, Jadeja handed over the captaincy back to Dhoni.

Playing style

Dhoni is a right-handed batsman and wicket-keeper. Dhoni is an unorthodox batsman, in the sense that much of his batting technique does not follow coaching manuals. Dhoni prefers to hit a full ball to Long-on, Long-off or Midwicket regions rather than driving it to the Cover region. Not only taking advantage of full length balls, he also displays skill in playing pull shots & hook shots off of short balls, which applies pressure to the bowler to bowl to him. He holds the bat firmly at the bottom of the handle and tries to hit the ball hard and flat to clear the boundary. Yet, he manages to hit long sixes at times.

Initially, Dhoni appeared as a lower-order attacking batsman but he gradually changed his playing style to deal with high-pressure scenarios and his growing responsibility as a captain. He is a powerful hitter of the ball and is one of the fastest men in running between the wickets.[165] He made use of the helicopter shot technique,[166] taught to him by a fellow player and childhood friend Santosh Lal.

His wicket-keeping skill is widely praised by cricket experts but also criticized for lack of good technique.He has a world record for the highest number of stumpings by any wicket-keeper.

As a captain Dhoni, was approachable to players. Former cricketers and opposition players underline that his behavior on cricket ground was calm and composed. He used to allow bowlers to set field for themselves.

Personal life

Dhoni with his wife Sakshi and daughter

His ancestral village is Lwali, which is in Jaiti taluka of Almora district of the Uttarakhand state. The village has population of 20 to 30 families. His father Pan Singh Dhoni left the village in 1970 for employment. He eventually settled in Ranchi. Dhoni's uncle Dhanpat Singh Dhauni and his cousin Hayat Singh Dhauni still live in Lwali.

He married Sakshi Singh Rawat on 4 July 2010.

The wedding took place one day after the couple got engaged. According to the Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu, a close friend[dubious – discuss] of Dhoni, the wedding was planned for months and was not a spur of the moment decision.better source needed] Dhoni and his wife have one daughter.

Dhoni is a great enthusiast of the Indian Army. While spending a day with the parachute regiment in Ranchi, Dhoni said, "Since childhood I wanted to join the Army. Seeing the soldiers, I thought one day I'll be the same".

He holds the post of vice-president marketing in India Cements Ltd. The company is headed by former BCCI president and IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings owner N. Srinivasan.