Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who still commands a huge fan following among cricket fans, turns 41 on Thursday, July 7. The Ranchi-based Dhoni, who is recognised as one of India's most successful captains, led the team to victories in the 2007 Men's T20 World Cup, 2011 Men's Cricket World Cup in ODIs and 2013 Champions Trophy apart from going on top of Test rankings in 2009.


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At the domestic level, he captained Chennai Super Kings to IPL titles in 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2021 apart from two now-defunct Champions League T20 titles in 2010 and 2014. Dhoni is fondly remembered for his attacking stroke play, keeping a calm head as a skipper in under-pressure situations, giving him the tag of "captain cool".


He etched his name in the minds of cricket fans forever with his match-winning six off Nuwan Kulasekara in the final of the 2011 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to give India the trophy on home soil, ending a wait of 28 years as World Champions in ODI format. In 538 matches in international cricket, Dhoni scored 17,266 at an average of 44.96, with 634 catches and 195 stumpings done as a wicketkeeper.


Interestingly, Dhoni also has one wicket in international cricket to show alongside his name. 


During the ICC Champions Trophy 2009, Dhoni dismissed former West Indies’ batter Travis Dowlin. He handed over the wicket-keeping gloves to Dinesh Karthik and in his very first over, MSD bowled Dowlin as the ball hit the stumps after taking an inside edge of his bat.


The video of Dhoni's only international wicket was shared by ICC on their Instagram handle on the occasion of the 41st birthday of the former India captain. Watch it here:



Notably, on India’s tour of England in 2011, Dhoni had also dismissed Kevin Pietersen but the former England skipper used DRS and overturned the decision. The same thing happened during the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 when Dhoni trapped Mahela Jayawardene in front of the stumps. There again, DRS came to batsman’s rescue and the decision was overturned.


In total, Dhoni has three wickets in his career. One of them came at the international level while the other two came in the List A format.


Currently, Dhoni, who retired from international cricket in 2020, is in the UK and celebrated his birthday with his friends and family, with India wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant joining in as well. He was also spotted watching Wimbledon matches in London on Wednesday.




Dhoni needs no introduction in the world of cricket and is famous for his calm and stunning captaincy skills on the field in his international and IPL days.


He announced his retirement from Test after playing 90 Tests, in which he scored 4,876 runs at an average of 38.09. He played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs, and 98 T20Is.