MS Dhoni - Career highlights and stats

ODI cricket

• Dhoni made his international debut at Chittagong (now Chattogram) on 23 Dec 2004 in the ODI match against Bangladesh. He was run out for a duck off the very first ball he faced in international cricket.
• In his fifth match for India he scored 148 in the ODI against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam on 5 April 2005. It was then the highest by any Indian ODI batsman against Pakistan. It was also then the highest by an Indian keeper in ODI cricket and remains the highest by any keeper against Pakistan in ODI cricket.
• In his 21st innings, Dhoni blasted an unbeaten 183 against Sri Lanka at Jaipur on 31 Oct 2005. This score remains the highest by a wicket-keeper in all ODI cricket. It was then the highest by any batsman while batting second in an ODI match.
• Dhoni appeared in three ODI matches for Asia XI against Africa XI in June 2007. He has the distinction of registering a three-figure score (139 not out) for Asia XI at Chennai on 10 June 2007. During the above knock, he and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene put on 218 runs partnership, which was then an ODI record for the sixth wicket, until it was surpassed in January 2015. 

• Dhoni’s tally of 10773 career runs makes him the fifth Indian to aggregate 10000 runs in ODI cricket. In ODI cricket only Kumar Sangakkara (13341) has scored more runs as a keeper.  His batting average of 50.57 makes him one of the only ten ODI batsmen, with a minimum of 1000 runs, to have a career average exceeding 50-plus in ODI cricket.
• His dismissal tally of 444 is the third highest in ODIs, after Kumar Sangakkara (482) and Adam Gilchrist (472). He is the only keeper in ODI cricket to claim over 100 stumpings - 123.
• Dhoni’s tally of 200 matches as captain is the third highest in ODIs after Ricky Ponting (230) and Stephen Fleming (218). He has won 110 matches as captain behind Ponting’s 165 in ODIs. 
• Under Dhoni’s captaincy, India won the World Cup title in India in 2011 and ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.
• In ODI cricket history, he remains the only player to appear in maximum number of ODI matches as both a captain and wicket-keeper. From 2007 to 2018, he appeared in a record 200 ODI matches in this dual role.

Test cricket

• Dhoni made his Test debut at Chennai in Dec 2005 against Sri Lanka. He got the opportunity to first step into the ground as a Test player only on the fifth day of the match just before lunch. The first three and half-days of the Test match was washed out because of rain! However, he managed to make 30 runs on debut. 
• In his second Test match, Dhoni made an unbeaten 51 at Delhi against Sri Lanka. In his fifth Test match he made his maiden Test century – 148 against Pakistan at Faisalabad in January 2006 (he had made the identical score for this maiden ODI century against the same opponent in April 2005 at Vizag). 
• Dhoni made his highest score in Tests - 224 against Australia at Chennai in 2013, which made him the first and the only Indian keeper to register a Test double century. His 224 was also then the highest by an Indian Test captain before Kohli surpassed him in 2016.
• His Test career tally of 4876 runs is the most by an Asian keeper and third highest by after Adam Gilchrist (5570) and Mark Boucher (5515).
• Dhoni’s Test tally of dismissals of 294 is the fifth-best by any keeper in Tests and the best by an Asian. His 38 stumpings are the third joint best in Test cricket. He and Syed Kirmani have the same number of stumpings.
• Dhoni captained in 60 Tests, the most by an Asian player. Under his captaincy, India in December 2009 became the number 1 Test ranked side for the first time in their history.
• In Test cricket history, Dhoni remains the only player to appear in over 50 Test matches as both a captain and wicket-keeper. From 2008 to 2014, he appeared in a record 60 Tests in this dual role.

T20I cricket

• Dhoni made his T20 international debut in India’s inaugural T20I match against South Africa at Johannesburg on 1 Dec 2006. Like he did on his ODI debut in Dec 2004, he was dismissed for a second-ball duck!
• His maiden fifty in T20I cricket came quite late in his 66th innings on 1 Feb 2017, more than 10 years after his T20I debut. By not scoring a fifty in his first 65 innings, he holds a record for a batsman with most innings before maiden fifty in T20I cricket.
• Dhoni has appeared for India in 98 matches; second most for India after Rohit Sharma.
• Dhoni’s 91 dismissals are the most by a keeper in T20I cricket. His 57 catches and 34 dismissals are also the most by a keeper in T20I cricket.
• Dhoni has captained is 72 T20I matches, the most by any player in this format. His 42 victories are the most by any captain in T20Is.
• Under Dhoni’s captaincy, India won the inaugural World T20 in South Africa in 2007.