Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, About this sound pronunciation (help·info) (Hindi: महेन्द्र सिंह धोनी ) (born July 7, 1981 in Ranchi, Bihar) (now in Jharkhand) is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Indian national cricket team.

Initially recognized as an extravagantly flamboyant and destructive batsman, Dhoni has come to be regarded as one of the coolest heads to captain the Indian ODI side. Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, CB Series of 2007–08 , the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008 and 2010 against Australia 2–0 and 2011 Cricket World Cup in which India beat Sri Lanka. Under his captaincy India acheived numero one ranking in tests. His Test,ODI record is best among all the Indian captains up to date. He also captained Chennai Super Kings to victory in the recent IPL 2010. He is now captain of India in all three forms of the game and also led the team to their first ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Under Dhoni captaincy India became the first team after a gap of more than 20 Years to clean sweep Australia in Test series. Dhoni also led team India to number one position in ICC rankings in test cricket for the first time. Dhoni has also been the recipient of many awards including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first Indian player to achieve this feat), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour in 2009. As of January 2010, Dhoni is the highest ranked ODI batsman on the ICC Rankings List. Dhoni was named as captain of Wisden's first-ever Dream Test XI Team in 2009 and has topped the list of world’s top 10 earning cricketers compiled by Forbes. He was named as the captain of ICC World Test and ICC ODI teams for 2009. In the final of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, he hit 91 not out of just 79 balls to lead India to victory. For his oustanding batting in the final and under extreme pressure he was awarded man of the match.