Mahendra Singh Dhoni, popularly known as Mahi, is an Indian cricketer. He is the captain of the Indian Twenty20 and One Day International (ODI) Cricket team. He was born on July 7, 1981 in Ranchi, Jharkhand to Pan Singh and Devaki Devi. He has one sister who is married and a brother. Dhoni attended the DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir in Jharkhand. He was the regular wicketkeeper at the Commando Cricket Club from 1995 to 1998. His performance in the Commando Cricket Club got him selected for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship. He was included in the Bihar U-19 squad for the 1998/1999 season. He helped the team advance to the finals of 1999-2000 Cooch Behar Trophy. He made it to the East Zone U-19 squad for the CK Nayudu Trophy. Dhoni made his Ranji Trophy debut for Bihar in 1999-2000 at the age of 18. He made a half century in his debut match and was 68 not out in the second innings against Assam cricket team. He finished the season with 283 runs in 5 matches. He scored his maiden first-class century against Bengal in the 2000-2001 season. He became popular with 3 half centuries in the 2002-2003 season in the Ranji Trophy and a couple of half-centuries in the Deodhar Trophy. He was a part of the East Zone squad which won the 2003-2004 Deodhar Trophy. He was also a part of the East Zone team in the Duleep Trophy Finals. He was noticed by the national team selectors in 2004 after his performances in the first class tournaments such as the Deodhar Trophy and the Duleep Trophy. Dhoni was selected to represent India 'A' team on a tour of Kenya and Zimbabwe and his all-round performance paved his way into the Indian national team. He was picked up in the One Day International (ODI) team for the Bangladesh tour in 2004-2005. He debuted against Bangladesh in Chittagong in December 2004 and was run out without any score. He was again selected for the Pakistan ODI series. He played his fifth one-day international match against Pakistan and scored 148 runs off 123 balls in Vishakapatnam in the second match of the series. He made a record of the highest runs scored by an Indian wicketkeeper. However he broke his own record by scoring 183 off 145 balls against Sri-Lanka. He was awarded the Man of the Series award for his highest run aggregate of 346 runs. With his consistent batting performance he overtook Ricky Ponting, the Australian cricket team captain and was number one in the ICC ODI rankings for batsmen on April 20, 2006. Dhoni was a part of the India team in the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup in which India was knocked out in the first round after it lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He scored 29 runs in the whole tournament. He was awarded an “A” grade contract in June 2007 after his excellent performance in the ODI cricket series against South Africa and England. He was elected as the Captain of the Indian Twenty20 Cricket Team for the ICC World Twenty20 Championship in September 2007. He led the team to win the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 trophy after defeating Pakistan in the final. He became the second Indian captain to have won a World Cup in any form of cricket after Kapil Dev. Dhoni made his Test Cricket debut against Sri Lanka in December 2005. He scored his maiden Test century (148 off 93 balls) against Pakistan in the 2nd Test at Faisalabad in January 2006 which is the fastest century scored by an Indian-wicketkeeper. Dhoni holds the following records: • Most dismissals by an Indian wicketkeeper. • Highest Individual innings by a number seven batsmen in one-day internationals. He scored 139 in the final match of 2007 Afro-Asia Cup against Africa XI. • Highest sixth wicket partnership of 218 runs with Mahela Jayawardene agasint Africa XI in the final match of 2007 Afro-Asia Cup. • His score of 183 equaled the record of the highest score against Sri Lanka by an Indian batsman in ODI cricket which was earlier set by Saurav Ganguly during the 1999 Cricket World Cup. • He holds the record of highest score (183 runs) made by a wicket keeper. He broke the Adam Gilchrist’s record of 172. • He is the second person to hit 10 sixes in an inning after Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi. • He is the first person to score the highest runs (183) in the second innings in ODI cricket. • Fastest century scored by an Indian wicketkeeper in a Test match. He has also done commercial ads for brands like Pepsi, Reebok, Exide, TVS Motors, Videocon, Titan Sonata, Brylcreem etc. He was voted as the 2006 MTV Youth Icon. He was declared the captain of the Indian One Day International (ODI) Cricket team for the Future Cup, a seven match ODI series against Australia in September 2007. Australia won the Future Cup 2007 cricket series by score of 4 - 2 matches. He was also the captain of the Indian One Day International (ODI) Cricket team for the Indian Oil Cup 2007, a five ODI match series against Pakistan. India had won the series by score of 3 - 2 matches.

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