Chennai Super Kings (CSK) celebrated the 21st anniversary of MS Dhoni’s maiden ODI century with a special X post for him on Sunday (April 5). The Yellow Army shared a few pics from Dhoni’s memorable 148-run knock against Pakistan. 21 years ago, Thala scored his first international century!” the franchise captioned the post. Courtesy of Dhoni’s century, Sourav Ganguly-led India registered a big total of 356 on the board and defended it successfully to go 2-0 ahead. India would lose the next four games to suffer a 2-4 defeat. Dhoni’s 148-run knock put him on the map and there was no looking back for him after that.
Captain Ganguly played a key role in Dhoni’s rise as he was the mastermind behind the promotion. Speaking to Gaurav Kapur on Breakfast With Champions, Ganguly revealed the unheard tale behind Dhoni’s promotion.
“When Dhoni came into the side in 2004, he played at No.7 in the first two matches. We went to Vizag (vs Pakistan) Mein new dekh raha tha and soch raha tha ki isko player kaise banaya jaye (I was watching the news and wondering how could make a player out of Dhoni). He had great potential,” Ganguly said in 2018.
“The next day in the morning, we did our warm-ups, did the toss, won it and decided to bat. While coming back I decided I will send him up the order.. We’ll see what the result is.. He was sitting in shorts because he knew he would bat at No.7. I told him to go up at No.3 and he asked ‘what about you?’ I said ‘I will bat at No.4’. And he went and scored 148. That is how you players are made,” he added.
Dhoni continued to bat in the top order before being demoted again. He slammed an unbeaten 183 against Sri Lanka in October 2005 while batting at number 3. He batted in the top four few times after becoming the ODI captain in 2004.
Dhoni finished his ODI career with 10773 runs in 297 innings across 350 ODIs. He also had a long Test career and scored 4876 runs in 90 Tests. Dhoni scored 1617 runs in 98 T20Is.
Dhoni had a legendary career as the national captain. He captained India to title wins in 2011 ODI World Cup, 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. Dhoni-led India climbed to the top spot in the ICC Test rankings for the first time in 2023. He retired from international cricket in August 2020.
