Mahendra Singh Dhoni

MS Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MS Dhoni) born in Ranchi, Jharkhand to parents named Pan Singh and Devaki Devi. Dhoni’s parents, moved from Uttarakhand to Ranchi, dad worked as a middle manager.

One of the most gifted Indian and World Cricket Players; Dhoni has not only become the face of cricket in India but probably the world. Well respected by Cricketing nations, England, Australia and South Africa.

His batting ability is quite sensational, his cricket shots full of power and he has regularly achieved high scores in Test Cricket, One Day Cricket and 20/20 Cricket. More recently he has become the face of IPL (Indian Premier League). The growth of Indian Premier League Cricket has been huge, led by the likes of MS Dhoni, Shane Warne and other major cricket personalities. The big batting and cross-batted cricket shots Dhoni regularly plays are well suited to the 20/20 form of cricket, he is more widely known for his power batting as opposed to his wicket keeping.

Dhoni has one sister Jayanti plus a brother Narendra. Originally with long hair, Dhoni recently cut it quite short; he cut it because he wanted to look like his favourite film star John Abraham. Dhoni is a fan of Adam Gilchrist, and his childhood idols were cricket teammate Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and singer Lata Mangeshkar.

Young Dhoni had listed Sachin Tendulkar among his heros as a kid, however Mahendra Singh Dhoni was actually a goalkeeper for the football team in his school (DAV School, Ranchi), and he always very good with tennis and badminton racquets.  Actually being chosen at club and reps level in both these sports. But all that changed when his football instructor Mr K.R. Banerjee sent him to play cricket for a local club.

He had not really played cricket until that time, but  Mahendra Singh Dhoni or ‘MS Dhoni’ as he is now called, provided immediate evidence of his wicket-keeping skills and became the regular keeper for the Commando Cricket Club (1995-98). Based on his club cricket performances, he was picked for the 1997-98 Vinoo Mankad Trophy U-16 Championship and did very well indeed. Football’s loss thus became cricket’s gain, and Mahi made his Ranji Trophy debut for Bihar in 1999-2000 as an 18-year-old, coming through the ranks of the Bihar and East Zone U-19 squads.

Full name Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Born July 7, 1981, Ranchi, Bihar
Current age 27 years 247 days
Major teams India, Asia XI, Bihar, Chennai Super Kings, Jharkhand
Also known as Mahi
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium
Fielding position Wicketkeeper