Former India skipper MS Dhoni
Former India skipper MS Dhoni, regarded among the country's most successful captains, turned 40 on Wednesday and Twitter was flooded with wishes and tributes in no time.
Dhoni is the only captain in the history of the sport to have won three ICC trophies – T20 World Cup (2007), ODI World Cup (2011) and Champions Trophy (2013). It was under the leadership of Dhoni that India clinched the No.1 position in both Test and ODI formats of the sport.
As a tribute to "Captain Cool", the International Cricket Council (ICC) also shared a video showing some of Dhoni's greatest on-field calls while leading the Indian side.
The video starts off with Dhoni's decision to hand the last over to Joginder Sharma in the 2007 T20 World Cup. Instead of going with experienced Harbhajan Singh, Dhoni threw the ball to Joginder, who dismissed Misbah-ul-Haq as India became the winner of the T20 showpiece.
The video also shows Dhoni's last-ball runout against Bangladesh in the thrilling 2016 T20 World Cup final. Bangladesh needed three to win off the last delivery bowled by Hardik Pandya. Batsman missed the ball and Dhoni, sporting just one wicketkeeping glove, sprinted towards the stumps to deny the opposition a quick single.
Dhoni's call to give an over to Virat Kohli also became a talking point of the tournament. In the match against West Indies, Kohli dismissed opener Johnson Charles but India eventually went on to lose the match.
The ICC tribute comes to an end with Dhoni's iconic World Cup-winning six against Sri Lanka. After promoting himself ahead of Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni scored unbeaten 91 at the Wankhede and finished the summit clash in style by dispatching a maximum off Nuwan Kulasekara.
Dhoni may have retired from international cricket last year, but his fans are eagerly waiting to see him in action for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He will be seen captaining the Chennai-based outfit when IPL 2021 resumes in the UAE in September.
