Captain of India

Dhoni was named the captain of Indian squad for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa in September 2007. India were crowned champions as Dhoni led the team to victory against Pakistan in a thrilling contest.He, then, went on to become the ODI captain of the Indian team for the sevenmatch ODI series against Australia in September 2007. He made his debut as fulltime Test captain of India during the fourth and final Test against Australia at Nagpur in November 2008 replacing Anil Kumble who was injured in the third test and who then announced his retirement. Dhoni was vicecaptain in this series up to that point.India eventually won that Test thus clinching the series 2 0 and retained the BorderGavaskar Trophy.Dhoni had previously captained India on a standin basis against South Africa and Australia in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

It was under his captaincy that India climbed to No. 1 in the ICC Test Rankings in December 2009. After that he managed to lead India in a seriesleveling world championship of Tests against the South Africans in February 2010. India also managed to draw the Test series 11 in South Africa later that year.After winning the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup final against Sri Lanka on 2 April 2011 with his match winning knock of unbeaten 91, Tendulkar heaped praises on Dhoni, claiming him to be the best captain he has played under. Tendulkar mentioned that it was Dhonis calm influence that was rubbing off on all his teammates and described Dhonis handling of pressure was incredible.Only nine players have captained ten or more Tests playing as a wicketkeeper. Dhoni leads the table with 33 Tests as captain, 15 ahead of Gerry Alexander in second place.In March 2013, Dhoni became the most successful Indian Test captain when he eclipsed Sourav Gangulys record of 21 victories from 49 Tests. Ganguly also said in an interview to a news channel that Dhoni is the alltime greatest captain of India and he has a great record to support this credential.