MS Dhoni’s Birthday: The Captain Cool Turns 42, Know 5 Times He Won the Respect of Fans

MS Dhoni's 42nd birthday calls for a celebration. Being a former captain of India, he earned the title ‘Captain Cool’ for maintaining his composure under challenging times in games. He is still the only skipper in the history of cricket to have won the ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy. We will take you through a glimpse of some of the surprising yet crucial decisions by MS Dhoni that led the men in blue to victory in trying times.

Here are 5 Times Dhoni proved that he is Captain Cool:

1)  2007 World Cup

Who can forget India's victory in the first T-20 World Cup in 2007? India scored 157 runs in their first innings in the match against Pakistan, but Misbah-ul-Haq appeared determined to make the men in blue bite the dust. In the final over against Misbah-ul-Haq, Dhoni permitted medium pacer Joginder Sharma to ball. Joginder was however little experienced with the ball. And as expected, Joginder Sharma came through for India, dismissing Misbah with the first ball of the crucial over to give India a thrilling triumph.

2) 2011 World Cup Final

When India was chasing a difficult total of 275 runs against Sri Lanka, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar both lost their wickets at critical points in the innings. Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli were able to contain the innings for a while. However, by unexpected decision, Dhoni elected to go up the order in lieu of Yuvraj Singh when Kohli was dismissed. At the time, it seemed like a bad choice because Yuvraj Singh was having a fantastic World Cup and the Dhoni had been struggling with his form. But Dhoni's strategy worked, and with a six, he guided the Indian team to their first ODI World Cup triumph in 28 years.

3) Rohit Sharma as an Opener 

In the earlier versions of the game, Rohit Sharma batted in the middle of the order. Ahead of the 2013 Champions Trophy, MSD made the decision to assign Rohit a new position within the Indian team. When Rohit was selected to bat first for India, the rest is history. The Mumbai-born batsman went on to become the player to accumulate 6,000 runs in the quickest time starting the innings, and he has since been an important member of the Indian lineup.

4) Giving Ishant Sharma the Ball in Champions Trophy

The trust Dhoni has placed in his players throughout the years has been a defining aspect of his cricketing career. Due to rain, the 2013 Champions Trophy final was shortened to 20 overs, and Dhoni made the unorthodox choice to bowl to Ishant Sharma. Ishant was slaughtered to that point giving away too many runs, and Ravi Bopara was not going to show mercy with his bat. Ishant, though, claimed the match-changing wickets of Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan in quick succession in the 18th over to favor India.

5) 2016 T-20 World Cup

The 2016 T-20 World Cup was unsuccessfully defended by India, and it ended up being MS Dhoni's final major title as captain of his country. However, MS Dhoni demonstrated the best leadership qualities when he guided his squad to a one-run victory in a game against Bangladesh.