These are some of the achievements of the MSD captaincy.
- T20 was the most popular sport.
- Most matches were played as captains in Tests for India.
- Most matches were played for India as the Captain of the ODI.
- All formats of players have played most matches as captains.
- Second-most win as Captain in ODI.
- T20’s most successful Captain with 20 wins in 33 matches.
- Dhoni is currently the only Captain to have won all three major ICC limited-over tournaments.
- India won the World T20 in 2007, the 2011 ODI World Cup, and the 2013 Champions Trophy under Dhoni.
If these don’t make him the best Captain in Indian cricket history, I wonder what does. Let’s check his overall captaincy stats now!
MS Dhoni Overall Capty Stats
Now let’s go format by format…
Dhoni Test Captaincy Record
MS Dhoni can be rightly called the most successful Captain for India in all formats of Cricket in terms of matches he won for India as Captain.
- MS Dhoni holds the record for most matches played by an Indian captain in Tests.
- MS Dhoni’s Win % had gotten a big dig when he suffered the controversial 8-0 an overseas loss against England and Australia.
- Virat Kohli currently has the highest win% of any Indian captain. Check out The complete Record for Indian Tests here.
- India was the number-one country in the 2009 tests conducted under Dhoni.
- Dhoni was the first Indian Captain who whitewashed an Australian team during a test series in 2013.
- The MSD overseas win count is 6, while Kohli leads this section.
Here is a table showing the record for Indian Test captaincy:
| CAPTAINS | MATCHES | WON | LOST | DRAFT | WIN% | OVERSEAS WINNERS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V KOHLI | 68 | 40 | 17 | 11 | 58.82 | 16 |
| MS DHONI | 60 | 27 | 18 | 15 | 45.00 | 6 |
| S GANGULY | 49 | 21 | 13 | 15 | 42.85 | 11 |
| M AZHARUDDIN | 47 | 14 | 14 | 19 | 29.78 | 3 |
| S GAVASKAR | 47 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 19.14 | 3 |
| N PATAUDI | 40 | 9 | 19 | 12 | 22.50 | 2 |
Let’s now see where MSD ranks among other top captains all over the globe!
- Dhoni currently stands 6th when it comes to Test cricket’s Most matches won by a Captain.
- Dhoni has captained 60 matches, whereas South Africa’s Graeme Smith ranks No.1 with 109 matches as Captain.
- Graeme Smith is currently the International Test captain who has led his team more than 100 times in whites.
- Ricky Ponting holds the record for the highest win% at 62.33. Ponting’s Australian team was considered one of the Dream Teams in Test Cricket.
Dhoni Test Captaincy Stats Home/Away:
MSD lost 15 out of 30 away matches during his time as Captain.
Yet, it is possible to accept that the Indian Team was at a developmental stage regarding away Test Matches.
With no proper pace attack, it is not easy to win tests in England, Australia & South Africa.
This is a great improvement in the Indian cricket team, especially under Virat Kohli’s captaincy. It gives the Indian Pace bowlers the much-needed opportunity to shine under Kohli. Under Virat Kohli, Umesh Yadav & Mohammad Shami are completely different bowlers.
Dhoni ODI Captaincy Record
MS Dhoni was a leader when it came to the shorter format.
MS Dhoni, as Captain, has won so many games. He has led the Indian team in a record 199 matches. He has won nearly 60% of these matches.
MSD holds the record of winning the most ODI games by an Indian captain.
MS Dhoni Update played his 200th ODI as Captain in Asia Cup 2018; Rohit Sharma was the Captain of the Indian Team in that tournament and was then rested.
The match against Afghanistan ended in a tie.
MS Dhoni, who has played 200 matches in ODI as Captain, is still the Indian Captain with the most matches.
He is only second to Ricky Ponting when it comes to the World to cap more International OCI matches as Captain.
Dhoni – Most matches as Captain in ODI
Ricky Ponting holds the record for Most Captain Matches (230) and Most Captain Wins (165) in ODI.
With a staggering 76.14% Win-Loss ratio, the former Australian Captain is at the top.
Dhoni places himself at No.3 behind Ponting & his CSK Coach S Fleming, who had led his NZ national team for an extended 10-year span captaining 218 Matches.
He is just one match ahead of Arjuna Ranatunga (the 1996 World Cup-winning captain of Sri Lanka)
Dhoni T20 Captaincy Record
When the format gets shorter and shorter, Dhoni gets better & better with his stats.
MS Dhoni won the 2007 T20 World Cup with a young team.
MS Dhoni is the record holder for Most T20 matches as Captain and Most T20 wins as Captain.
Technically, Dhoni has the highest number of T20 losses as Captain.
We are done with the three formats of cricket. Let us now look at some records Dhoni holds as a captain.
Dhoni Captaincy Records in all Formats
MSD had captained India for around ten years in all three formats. He holds the record for All forms of cricket that have seen the most matches played by a captain.
Dhoni is currently the only Captain to have won all three major ICC limited-over tournaments.
India won the World T20 in 2007, the 2011 ODI World Cup, and the 2013 Champions Trophy under Dhoni.
India won four limited-over tournament finals involving five or more teams. He was the joint-most successful Captain in such limited-over internationals.
After Ricky Ponting (2003 and Clive Lloyd) 1975, he became the third man to win Man-of-the Match with his unbeaten 91 in the finals of the 2011 World Cup.
Update: Rohit Sharma, India’s Captain at Asia Cup 2018, was absent, so Dhoni took charge of the Indian team. It now stands at 332 matches, with Dhoni as the Captain of MSD.
Dhoni ODI runs as Captain.
MSD Captaincy has never lost his Chasing Master Skill and Batting Skills.
| PLAYER (CAPTAIN). | RUNS | INNINGS | AVERAGE | 100/50 | HIGH SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky Ponting (AUS) | 8497 | 220 | 42.91 | 22/51 | 164 |
| MS Dhoni (IND) | 6641 | 172 | 53.56 | 6/47 | 139* |
| Stephen Fleming (NZ) | 6295 | 208 | 32.79 | 7/38 | 134* |
| Arjuna Ranatunga (SL) | 5608 | 183 | 37.64 | 4/37 | 131* |
| Virat Kohli (IND) | 5449 | 91 | 72.65 | 21/27 | 160* |
| Graeme Smith, SA | 5416 | 148 | 38.96 | 8/37 | 141 |
| Mohd Azharuddin (IND) | 5239 | 162 | 38.96 | 4/37 | 153* |
| Sourav Ganguly (IND). | 5104 | 143 | 38.67 | 11/30 | 144 |
| AB de Villiers (SA) | 4796 | 98 | 63.95 | 13/27 | 162* |
| Alan Border (AUS) | 4439 | 165 | 32.17 | 2/27 | 127* |
Most Runs as Captain in ODI
Stats Highlights
- MS Dhoni scored 6,633 runs as a captain in ODIs, which is the second most by any captain after Ponting’s 8,497 runs.
- His average score of 53.92 in ODIs is the highest by a captain who has played at least 1,000 ODIs. AB de Villiers is in first place with 4,219 runs scored from 87 ODIs. His average score of 65.92 is also impressive.
- Dhoni holds the record for Most Runs in T20 as Captain – 1112 Runs in 72 Matches.
- Dhoni also holds the record for Most Sixes by any Captain – 126 Sixes in 199 Matches as Captain. Ponting is 2nd with the 123 Sixes.
- MS Dhoni’s Average in Successful Run Chases being a Captain stands at 70.83, which is third among International Captains.
- MSD Not-Outs count has been at 26 for Captain in Successful Run Chases. This is again a World Record.
- Dhoni also holds the record for doing the Dual Role of being a Captain and the Wicket Keeper for the most matches – 331 Matches.