This Day, That Year, MS Dhoni International Debut: MS Dhoni, the former Indian captain made his international debut on this day (December 23) in 2004 when the 23-year-old stepped up against the Bangladesh side in an ODI match at Chattogram.
His selection in the team emerged as a step to find a wicket-keeper batter who was consistent behind and in front of the stumps.
Making his debut in India colors under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, Dhoni got off to the worst possible start in his international career.
Dhoni arrived at the crease after India lost five wickets for 180 runs before he had a terrible mixup with Mohammad Kaif, resulting in his run out for a first-ball duck.
Dhoni softly had pushed the ball towards fine leg and looked to reach the non-striker's end safely.
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Kaif denied the single and Dhoni, who was almost halfway down the pitch, tried to return to his crease but fell short as the Bangladesh keeper, Khaled Mashud, whipped the bails off.
Dhoni had a horrible outing in his first international game but ended up on the winning side as India pulled off a thrilling 11-run victory.
The three-match series didn't go well for the Jharkhand-born cricketer as managed very little with the bat.
However, in the next series at home against Pakistan, Dhoni found his footing at the international level with a blistering 148 off 123 deliveries in the second ODI.
Dhoni never looked back from there and went on to feature in all three formats for the Men in Blue as he became one of the most prolific wicketkeeper-batter and captain.
Captaincy and journey to three ICC titles
India's ongoing struggle for an ICC trophy wasn't the same a few years ago as the now-retired legendary cricketer led the Men in Blue to remarkable success in three ICC events between 2007 and 2013.
Dhoni was appointed as the captain of the side that entered the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007 in South Africa as he took over the leadership role in the absence of the likes of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, and a few more.
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Dhoni captained the young Indian side brilliantly in the tournament as they had nothing to lose when it came to pressure scenarios.
The Men in Blue ended up lifting the first-ever T20 WC title with a thrilling win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the final with Dhoni announcing himself as a great leader in the grand stage.
It didn't take for Dhoni to be given the captaincy in all three formats with the selectors and team management overlooking the much more senior players like Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag for the role.
Dhoni repeated the glory, this time a big one when he led the Men in Blue to their second ODI World Cup win in 2011 at home.
He himself took the job in his hands in the summit clash against Sri Lanka and scored an unbeaten 91 runs in the run chase and finished the job with an iconic six over long-on at the Wankhede Stadium.
He became only the second Indian captain after the legendary Kapil Dev to lift the World Cup title with the team ending a drought of 28 years and also becoming the first side to win the title on home soil.
The 42-year-old followed that by leading the side to the title in the 2013 Champions Trophy in England.
Dhoni couldn't achieve much in Test cricket and decided to announce a shocking pre-mature retirement from the longest format during the 2014-2015 Australia tour.
He kept leading the side in white-ball formats and ended up showing his class as one of the most successful captains and best finishers in modern cricket.
He left the captaincy role in 2017 after grooming his deputy Virat Kohli who took over the role in all formats.
Notably, Dhoni captained India in an incredible 332 games across formats and won 178 (both Indian records) with a win percentage of almost 60.
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He also scored over 17,000 runs in his international career with 16 centuries and is considered by many as the greatest finisher in white-ball cricket.
Dhoni went on to represent the Men in Blue in 350 ODI matches and scored 10773 runs at a remarkable average of 50.58 with the help of 73 half-centuries and 10 hundreds.
He also has 4876 Test runs and 1617 runs in T20Is to his name in 90 and 98 matches respectively.
The legendary player announced his retirement in August 2020, a year after playing his last international innings in the semi-final of the ODI World Cup 2019 against New Zealand.
Apart from immense success at the international level as Indian captain, Dhoni also led his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings to five titles including the recent one in 2023.