Ms Dhoni Profile

Name        MS Dhoni
Born          July 07, 1981
                  Ranchi
Age            36 years 336 days
Teams         Chennai Super Kings, Asia XI, India, Indians, Jharkhand, Rising Pune
Nickname    Mahi
Bat Style.     Right Handed Bat
Bowl Style.   Right-arm medium


Less than thirty years before that enchanting Saturday night when Ravi Shastri’s voice rang through television sets all over India, when even the spunky and exuberant Indian youth showed more interest in an old-school CRT television at a local chai ki dukaan than the dance-floor at a pub, a pump-operator in Ranchi awaited the birth of his third child.


'Dhoni finishes off in style. A magnificent strike into the crowd. India lift the World Cup after 28 years. The party's started in the dressing room. And it’s an Indian captain, who’s been absolutely magnificent, in the night of the final.’ Any cricket fan worth his salt just read this in Ravi Shastri's most dramatic voice, as Mahendra Singh Dhoni enchanted the Wankhede on the night of 2nd April 2011.

The Foundations
Hailing from Jharkhand, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s rise through the ranks into international cricket is a tale of rebellion, extraordinary merit, perseverance, and, most of all, belief. After being scouted on the whims of his school P.E. teacher as a wicketkeeper, Dhoni created whispers in the cricketing circles of Ranchi - a teenaged boy with no measurable upper-body strength clearing boundaries against some of the best fast bowlers of the district. However, the system failed him as he found it difficult to make the cut against candidates of the more affluent A-tier states. Consequently, in a desperate move, he joined the Railways Ranji team and started to work as a ticket collector at the Kharagpur railway station to make ends meet.

Nevertheless, in a few months, the stars started to align themselves for the precocious wunderkind from Ranchi. Inspired by the KSCA, the BCCI started a country-wide Training Research Development Wing to scout talent from the more financially backward states. Dhoni immediately caught the eyes of the scouts and was sent on an A tour to Kenya, where his talent burst forth for the world to see as he showcased his batting pyrotechnics against world-class bowlers in alien conditions. He immediately shot to national reckoning and was selected for the tour of Bangladesh in November 2004.

By then a broad 22-year-old with long locks, Dhoni’s India career got off to an inauspicious start, as he scored a duck in his first ODI and a string of low scores followed. However, the selectors and the then-captain Sourav Ganguly decided to persist with him and gave him an extended run. Dhoni repaid their faith with an exhibition of his charisma and audacious stroke-play in his fifth ODI against Pakistan, who certainly didn’t see the butchery coming, as he butchered his way to 148 at Vishakhapatnam. Later in 2005, he went one step further bludgeoning his way to a brutal 183* in Jaipur to make a mockery of a 300-run chase against a Sri Lankan attack that looked aghast at his bizarre-but-effective stroke-play and the unparalleled physical power that he imparted on the ball.

Technique
There have always been questions about Dhoni's technique, and how ugly it looks. And the assessment of Dhoni's technique points out one of the major follies in our game - the temptation to judge by aesthetics rather than functionality. Technique is a product of how you get something done and not a step by step physical procedure as to how to do it. The method to achieve the fundamental virtues of the game rely on your abilities and aptitude to execute them in a particular way. Dhoni looks unorthodox at the crease, but he gets back and across. Instead of punching with his fore-arms, he bludgeons it with his wrists, with a low back-lift, ensuring that he plays it late. Most importantly, he has a still head while perceiving the line of the ball and at the point of contact. He also has an open stance allowing him to pull easily by getting to the back-foot early.

And just like that, all the virtues of batting are achieved by him, albeit with a slightly out-of-the-box method.

As teams all over the world tried to work a way around his fireworks, Dhoni established himself