In cricket, 7th July now has a key significance as it is the birthday of one of the most successful Indian captains, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni has reached legendary status and despite his recent poor form, there are many memorable moments from the past where Dhoni has proved himself to be the best in the world.
Going by his batting record, Dhoni has more than 17,000 runs combining all three formats. It is the limited over format where Dhoni was the most effective and was the number one ODI batsman for a long time. His ODI highest score is 183 which put him as part of an interesting trivia. Till now only three players have scored 183 runs in an ODI inning. All three players were from India and for all three 183 is their highest ODI score. These three men were Sourav Ganguly (against Sri Lanka in 1999), MS Dhoni (against Sri Lanka in 2005) and Virat Kohli (Against Pakistan in 2012). All the three men went on to lead India with admirable success and hence if any young Indian player can score another 183 runs we can very well say that he would go on to become a successful Indian captain.
Another interesting fact is related to Dhoni’s success in ICC events. MS Dhoni-led India in three ICC trophy wins with 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ICC World Cup, and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. With the 2011 World Cup win, India became the only team to win 60-over World Cup (1983), 50-over World Cup (2011) and 20-over World Cup (2007). No other team has done that and only West Indies can achieve this if they can win the 50-over World Cup which looks less likely anytime soon.
Sourav Ganguly once called MS Dhoni a gambler and Dhoni has displayed enough reason to prove that. In the last over of the 2007 World Cup, he went for the part-time bowling of Joginder Sharma to bowl the final over to Misbah-ul-Haq which produced the result for India. In the 2011 World Cup final he promoted himself to counter the threat of Muttiah Muralitharan which was a vital move and proved decisive. Even in the 2013 Champions Trophy final, his decision to carry on with Ishant Sharma was not the most popular one but finally got the best result out for India.
