Fans all over the nation are commemorating former India captain MS Dhoni’s 42nd birthday in unique ways. While many would prefer to recall some of the memorable events the legendary wicketkeeper-batter was involved in while representing India and playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with Chennai Super Kings (CSK), some have taken their admiration and love for Dhoni a step further.
On the eve of the noteworthy day, pictures appeared showing enormous cut-outs of Dhoni in Hyderabad and Nandigama, Andhra Pradesh. According to reports, the cutout in Nandigama is 77 feet tall, while the one in Hyderabad is reportedly 52 feet tall. While the latter shows Dhoni wearing his India jersey, the cut-out Nandigama shows him sporting the uniform of CSK. A video of milk being poured over the cutout in Nandigama was also available.
Fans celebrate MS Dhoni’s 42nd birthday with giant cutouts in different places
Many people consider MS Dhoni to be one of the greatest Indian captains of all time and one of the finest limited-overs cricket captains in history. He is the only captain to have captured the T20 World Cup, World Cup, and Champions Trophy, the three white-ball competitions run by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
In his first-ever duty as team captain, he led India to the 2007 T20 World Cup victory. The team won the 2011 ODI World Cup under his leadership, making him just the second Indian, following Kapil Dev in 1993, to have done so. In the 2013 Champions Trophy final, he later led India to their first-ever outright victory. India technically won the Champions Trophy for the second time after sharing the trophy with Sri Lanka in 2002. Dhoni also served as captain in 2009, the year that India initially topped the Test rankings.
Dhoni is a pivotal figure in the IPL’s history as well. Since the first IPL season, he has served as CSK’s captain and has guided the team to a record-tying five IPL championships. He and Rohit Sharma of the Mumbai Indians share the record for the most championships won while serving as captain in the T20 league. In addition, Dhoni has guided CSK in all but two of the tournament’s league stages.
One of the finest finishers in the history of cricket’s limited-overs format is Dhoni. Before abruptly leaving the format in 2014, he played 90 Test matches and amassed 4876 runs—six hundreds and 33 half-centuries—at an average of 38.09. His 294 dismissals rank fifth overall and are the most by an Indian wicketkeeper in Test cricket, trailing just Mark Boucher, Adam Gilchrist, Ian Healy, and Rodney Marsh in that category.
He played 350 ODIs, scoring 10,773 runs at an average of 50.57, with 10 centuries and 73 half-centuries. In 98 T20I matches for India, Dhoni amassed 1617 runs with a strike rate of 126.13 and two half centuries.
