MS Dhoni
- Date of Birth 1981-7-7
- Role wicketkeeper batter
- Batting Style right-hand bat
- Bowling Style right-arm medium
Debut Matches
| Format | Match | Date |
|---|---|---|
| TEST | IND vs SL | 2005-12-02 |
| ODI | IND vs BAN | 2004-12-23 |
| T20 | SA vs IND | 2006-12-01 |
| vs | 1970-01-01 |
Recent Performances
Batting Statistics
Matches
90
Innings
144
Runs
4876
Average
38.09
Strike Rate
59.11
Highest Score
224
100s
6
50s
33
Fours
544
Sixes
78
Catches
256
Bowling Statistics
Matches
90
Innings
7
Wickets
0
Average
-
Economy
4.18
Strike Rate
-
Best Figure
-
4 Wickets
0
5 Wickets
0
Balls Bowled
96
Runs Conceded
67
Batting Statistics
Matches
350
Innings
297
Runs
10773
Average
50.57
Strike Rate
87.56
Highest Score
183*
100s
10
50s
73
Fours
826
Sixes
229
Catches
321
Bowling Statistics
Matches
350
Innings
2
Wickets
1
Average
31
Economy
5.16
Strike Rate
36
Best Figure
1/14
4 Wickets
0
5 Wickets
0
Balls Bowled
36
Runs Conceded
31
Batting Statistics
Matches
98
Innings
85
Runs
1617
Average
37.6
Strike Rate
126.13
Highest Score
56
100s
0
50s
2
Fours
116
Sixes
52
Catches
57
Bowling Statistics
Matches
98
Innings
-
Wickets
-
Average
-
Economy
-
Strike Rate
-
Best Figure
-
4 Wickets
-
5 Wickets
-
Balls Bowled
-
Runs Conceded
-
Batting Statistics
Matches
423
Innings
364
Runs
13353
Average
50.38
Strike Rate
Highest Score
183*
100s
17
50s
87
Fours
Sixes
Catches
402
Bowling Statistics
Matches
423
Innings
Wickets
2
Average
26.5
Economy
5.04
Strike Rate
31.5
Best Figure
1/14
4 Wickets
0
5 Wickets
0
Balls Bowled
63
Runs Conceded
53
Batting Statistics
Matches
405
Innings
355
Runs
7628
Average
37.57
Strike Rate
135.63
Highest Score
84*
100s
0
50s
28
Fours
529
Sixes
350
Catches
230
Bowling Statistics
Matches
405
Innings
1
Wickets
0
Average
-
Economy
12.5
Strike Rate
-
Best Figure
-
4 Wickets
0
5 Wickets
0
Balls Bowled
12
Runs Conceded
25
MS Dhoni IPL factfile
- MS Dhoni led India to three ICC titles but he is nearly as famous for his exploits in the yellow of Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.
- Dhoni, known as CSK's "Thala" (leader), captained the franchise to ten finals in their first 14 IPL seasons and won them five titles - in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023 . He's led them to the playoffs in 12 editions, making them the most consistent team in the IPL. In a surprise move on the eve of the IPL 2024 season opener, Dhoni stepped down as CSK captain and was succeeded by Ruturaj Gaikwad.
- Dhoni was bought by CSK at the first IPL auction in 2008 and - barring a handful of games in 2022 - has been their captain ever since. No other player has led an IPL team for so long. Only when CSK was banned for two years on corruption charges - in 2016 and 2017 - did Dhoni play for another team in the IPL: Rising Pune Super Giant(s).
- Dhoni's most memorable season with the bat was 2018, when he scored 455 runs at an average of 75.83 and strike rate of 150.66 to lead CSK to the title in their comeback season following the ban.
- Dhoni was the first to play 250 matches in the IPL, reaching the milestone in 2023, four years after he played his last international game for India. He had resigned as CSK captain ahead of IPL 2022, but took back the captaincy after his successor Ravindra Jadeja stepped down mid-way through the season. He led the team to the title in 2023, before stepping down from captaincy again next year.
- Dhoni had a strike rate of 220.54 in IPL 2024, his highest across all seasons. He smashed 161 off 73 balls, including 14 fours and 13 sixes
MS Dhoni player profile
MS Dhoni probably ranks as the third-most popular Indian cricketer ever, behind only Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. He emerged from a cricketing backwater, the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, and made it to the top with a home-made batting and wicketkeeping technique, and a style of captaincy that scaled the highs and hit the lows of both conservatism and unorthodoxy.
Under Dhoni's leadership, India won the top prize in all formats: leading the Test rankings for 18 months starting December 2009, winning the 50-over World Cup in 2011, and the T20 world title on his captaincy debut in 2007.
He seemingly emerged fully formed at 23, when he blasted two centuries in a triangular 50-over tournament for India A in Nairobi. Long-haired and fearless, he soon swaggered into international cricket, and became an instant darling of the crowds with ODI innings of 148 and 183 not out within a year of his debut.
Dhoni improvised abd learned, but he didn't apologise for his batting style, which was not the most elegant. He became a multifaceted ODI batter, one who could accumulate, rebuild, and unleash big sixes, all seemingly at will.
Along the way he showed leadership skills, which were recognised when Rahul Dravid gave up the captaincy in 2007. A day before that announcement from Dravid, a young India side under Dhoni played the first game of the first T20 World Cup in South Africa, and went on to win the tournament. The ODI captaincy was a natural progression, and the Test role duly followed too.
Dhoni brought to the captaincy a thick skin and the relative indifference to results that an Indian captain needs to keep the job for long. Along with India's coach, Gary Kirsten, he put his senior performers in a comfortable place, and they repaid him by producing some of their best years in international cricket. Dhoni's sense of calm on the field mostly worked like a charm in the shorter formats, although he sometimes sat back for too long in Tests tactically. Still, India had some of their best years in Test cricket, in terms of tangible achievement, under him: in the 60 Tests he led in, they had a win-loss ratio of 1.5.
However, after the 50-over World Cup win in 2011, which Dhoni sealed with a timely 91 and a six off his patented helicopter shot, an ageing team lost eight straight Tests on the trot away from home and his captaincy came under immense pressure, which was then exacerbated by India's first home series loss in eight years, 2-1 to England in 2012-13. This brought about a new chapter in Dhoni's career, where he seemed more assertive as a captain, building a new team. He played his best Test innings on a turner to win India the Chennai Test in 2013 against Australia, and became the first captain to lead India to four wins in a Test series.
Away from home in the winter of 2013-14, India lost Test series in South Africa and New Zealand by 1-0 margins that did not reflect how close they came to winning both. The England tour of 2014 began promisingly, with a drawn first Test followed by a historic win at Lord's, but India crashed to earth immediately afterwards to lose the series 3-1. At Old Trafford and The Oval, with the batting crumbling around him, Dhoni played a couple of his bravest innings in Tests.
On the tour of Australia that followed, India competed ferociously, thanks to a young batting core led by Kohli, but it didn't quite show in their results. Dhoni announced after the third Test, in Melbourne, that he was retiring from the format. He ended his career in whites with a proud record for a wicketkeeper: 4876 runs at an average of just over 38, six hundreds, and just under 300 dismissals.
Dhoni continued to lead India in the shorter formats, and they got to the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup. A year later they won the Asia Cup T20 in Bangladesh but exited the home T20 World Cup in the semi-final, though Dhoni enjoyed a good tournament as a finisher, scoring 89 runs while only being dismissed once in five innings, and showing electric reflexes while keeping to the spinners. He eventually played on till the 2019 World Cup (but gave up the white-ball captaincy in January 2017).
India's defeat to New Zealand in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup turned out to be Dhoni's final international, although that wasn't officially confirmed till more than a year later, when after Covid brought sport to a halt, he announced it on Instagram just as players' preparations for that year's delayed IPL began.
In that tournament, Dhoni has been the face of the Chennai Super Kings franchise, inspiring fierce cult fandom. When Super Kings were reinstated in 2018 after two seasons out serving a suspension, he was back at the helm, leading the team to a fairy-tale third title, and he almost repeated the feat in 2019, when CSK lost a thrilling final against Mumbai Indians by just one run. Dhoni led them to their third title win in 2021, and repeated the feat in 2023, making CSK the league's most successful franchise, alongside Mumbai.