Seventeen years ago, on this day, former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni made his debut in international cricket. Dhoni made his debut against Bangladesh in Chittagong ODI but the star wicket-keeper batter got out without troubling the scoreboard. Dhoni was dismissed for a golden duck as Tapash Baisya and Khaled Mashud ran him out on the first ball the batter had faced in international cricket. However, Dhoni went onto become the greatest finisher in modern-day limited-overs cricket and was regarded as one of the sharpest cricketing minds who had ever played the game.
Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, 2020. The former Indian skipper had already bid farewell to the longest format in December 2014.
Dhoni is among the most successful captains in world cricket. It was under his leadership that India lifted the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 after having led India to triumph in the ICC World T20 in its maiden edition of the tournament held in 2007 in South Africa.
With India winning the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 in England, Dhoni became the first and is still the only captain till date to have won all three ICC Trophies.
While his heroics in the limited-overs formats are well documented, it was also under his leadership that India became the No. 1 Test side in 2009 and the team stayed at the top for over 600 days. He has led India to victory in 21 home Test matches, the most by an Indian captain.
According to ICC, Dhoni spent 656 days as the top-ranked batsman in the ICC Men's ODI Player Rankings from 2006 to 2010 and was the ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2008 and 2009.
He was in the ICC ODI Teams of the Year in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 and in the ICC Test Teams of the Year in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. He won the ICC Spirit of Cricket award in 2011.
Last month, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) skipper said he hopes to play his last T20 match on the Chennai turf. CSK have won four Indian Premier League (IPL) titles under Dhoni's leadership with the recent win coming in October 2021.