In April 2006, Dhoni registered his first test century scoring 148 off 153 balls against Pakistan in the second Test of the series at Faisalabad. He went on to score his first one-day international hundred too in this tour cementing his place in a side that had stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and VVS Laxman to name a few. Dhoni’s arrival ended a long drought of wicketkeeper batsmen for India.
Dhoni is the only captain to win all major ICC trophies (50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy). All three matches had a turning point in India’s favour triggered by an unexpected decision by the captain Dhoni. In 2007, Dhoni’s decision to give the final over to Joginder Sharma against an in-form Misbah-ul-Haq was shocking to everyone but it paid off as India stole a narrow 5 run victory.
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In the 2011 World Cup, the look on skipper Mahendra Dhoni's face as he struck the winning six in the final against Sri Lanka said it all. But more importantly, he decided to come up the order, ahead of a fiery Yuvraj Singh at the top of his form. This was an important decision to stabilise the innings and to fend off the top-quality spinners from Sri Lanka and set the match up for a close ending.
In 2013, ICC Champions Trophy finals against England, Dhoni backed an out-of-form, demoralised Ishant Sharma in the 17/18th over against set batsmen like Eoin Morgan and Jos Butler. Ishant had already given 27 runs off his first three overs and India was defending a meagre total of 130 to chase in 20 overs. It was a trap for the English batsmen and they fell for it and Dhoni stole the victory from the jaws of defeat.
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In December 2014, Dhoni retired from Test cricket and gave a chance to the likes of Wriddhiman Saha. He called on his Test career after playing 90 Tests and managing a score of 4,876 at an average of 38.09. In 2017, he handed over the captaincy to Virat Kohli in the 50-over format.
In 2016, a spirited chase by Bangladesh in T20 World Cup group stage match had to bow in front of a Dhoni gamble in the final ball of the match. Faced with an opportunity of a run out and just a run between him and victory, Dhoni famously ran for the stumps instead of throwing the ball. He took a chance by not taking one with throwing the ball and the moment is now etched in history.