“And Dhoni finishes off in style! A magnificent strike into the crowd. India lift the World Cup after 28 years!” Is this the most astounding memory for the current generation of cricket lovers? Yes, it is- especially, if you’re an Indian Cricket fan. Today, let’s discuss about the most admired Indian Cricketer.
The Most Admired Indian Cricketer?
In 2019, there was a survey conducted by YouGov, where people voted MS as the second most admired man in India, behind only to the Indian PM Mr. Narendra Modi. What it suggests that he is not only the most admired man in all of sports, but has inspired the people fight till the last breath, even when the chips are down.
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I can recall from my interactions with a very close friend of mine, how MS had inspired the young generation. People used to work out how MS would respond to certain situation in their lives, had MS been in their shoes, and they came out nothing less than winners of the situation.
The most admired Indian Cricketer is among the fastest runners between the wickets even at the age of 38, stamping that age is just a number, and fitness can override age impact.
How MS Became The Most Admired!
The legend MS became, perhaps started with the Ravi Shastri words “In the air… Sreesanth takes it. India win!” Or even before. This was 2007, Dhoni was already making waves as “the Finisher” as they would call him. He was taking the matches to epic finishes as a middle-lower middle order batsman. He had already recorded the highest ODI score by an Indian wicket-keeper-batsman. 2007 T20 World Cup was an epic kind of start for any Cricketer who was made a captain.
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Three years later, Dhoni got India their fifth Asia Cup title in 2010. And then came the famous 2011. The year got him into the memories of millions of cricket lovers across the globe. And why not, he got the country with the largest youth population back on the Cricket World Cup winners board, after a tiring wait of 28 years. The closest to the cup, India reached in all these years, was in 2003 when a Sourav Ganguly’s team finished at being the runners up.
Achievements are many, here we list a few that made him the most admired Indian Cricketer:
- Only Indian Captain to win all three ICC tournaments (50-overs & T20 Cricket World Cups and Champions Trophy).
- Twice- Asia Cup winner.
- First cricketer to lead India in 200 ODIs.
- Only second wicket-keeper to reach 10000 ODI runs (Behind Sangakkara).
- The first Indian wicket-keeper to reach 4000 runs in Test Cricket.
- The highest score by an ODI wicket-keeper (183*).
- The Finisher has the most not outs in ODIs (82).
- The highest Test score by an Indian wicket-keeper (224)
- The most stumpings (120) by any ODI wicket-keeper.
- First Indian Cricketer and fifth overall to hit 200 ODI sixes.
- First Indian wicket-keeper with 300 catches from ODIs.
- The most dismissals in an innings as a wicket-keeper.
- The most matches as Captain-wicket keeper dual role.
- The most dismissals by an Indian wicket-keeper.
- The most T20I matches & most wins as Captain.
- The most matches as captain in international cricket (all formats).
- The first wicket-keeper with 150 stumping dismissals in international cricket.
- The oldest Indian cricketer to win the player of the series award (in Jan 2019 against Australia).
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Here we discussed about the most admired Indian Cricketer, hope you liked it. Don’t forget to pen down your addition to the records shared here.
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