Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni,  ( महेन्द्र सिंह धोनी) (born July 7, 1981 in Ranchi, Bihar) (now in Jharkhand) is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Indian national cricket 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 the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2008 in which they beat Australia 2–0. He also captained Chennai Super Kings to victory in the recent IPL 2010. He is now captain of India in all three forms of the game and also led the team to their first ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Dhoni also led team India to number one position in ICC rankings in test cricket for the first time. Dhoni has also been the recipient of many awards including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first Indian player to achieve this feat), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour in 2009. As of January 2010, Dhoni is the highest ranked ODI batsman on the ICC Rankings List. Dhoni was named as captain of Wisden's first-ever Dream Test XI Team in 2009 and has topped the list of world’s top 10 earning cricketers compiled by Forbes. He was named as the captain of ICC World Test and ICC ODI teams for 2009.

On 31 October 2005 Dhoni scored 183* runs of just 145 balls against Sri Lanka in Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, which is the highest score made by any batsman in the second innings (surpassing Lara's previous record of 153).

The innings featured 10 Sixes - the most by an Indian in an innings, and the fourth highest in ODI cricket after the 12 scored by Xavier Marshall of the West Indies, and 11 scored by both ST Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi.

He broke Adam Gilchrist's record of 172 for the highest score made by a wicket keeper.

The innings set the record for the most number of runs scored in boundaries (120 – 15x4; 10x6) breaking the record held by Saeed Anwar. However this was later broken by Herschelle Gibbs (126 runs in boundaries – 21x4; 7x6) against Australia during his knock of 175.

The score of 183* equaled Ganguly's innings during the 1999 Cricket World Cup as the highest individual score against Sri Lanka.

Among Indian batsmen who have played more than 50 matches, Dhoni has the highest average. Dhoni's batting average is also the highest amongst wicketkeepers in ODIs.

In June 2007, Dhoni(139*) and Mahela Jayawardene(107) set a new world record for the sixth wicket partnership of 218 runs against Africa XI during the Afro-Asia Cup.

Dhoni passed Shaun Pollock's record for the highest individual score by a number seven batsman in one-day internationals during his unbeaten innings of 139. Incidentally, Pollock record stood for just three days as his score of 130 came in the first match of the 2007 Afro-Asia Cup while Dhoni's century came in the third and final match of the series.

Dhoni also holds the records of the most dismissals in an innings by an Indian wicketkeeper and joint International (with Adam Gilchrist) with 6 dismissals (5 catches and one stumping) against England at Headlingly 2 September 2007.

Dhoni holds the Indian record of most dismissals in ODIs. He went past Nayan Mongia's 154 for India on 14 November 2008 when he caught Ian Bell off Zaheer Khan at Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground, Rajkot. However including 3 ODIs against Africa XI, his 155th dismissal was TM Dilshan caught off Munaf Patel at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on 24 August 2008.

Dhoni, when he was on four during his innings of 23 against Sri Lanka at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Saturday, completed 4,000 runs in ODIs. Having already effected 165 dismissals (125 catches + 40 stumpings), Dhoni became the sixth wicketkeeper after Adam Gilchrist, Andy Flower, Alec Stewart, Mark Boucher and Kumar Sangakkara to complete the "double" of 4,000 runs and 100 dismissals in the history of ODIs. Dhoni’s feat of completing the "double" of 4,000 runs and 100 dismissals in only 114 innings is a world record. He is the youngest wicket-keeper batsman to do so (27 years and 208 days).