Major landmark awaits MS Dhoni ahead of second T20I against England

Dhoni, regarded as one of the best captains India has ever had will on Friday add yet another feather to his prestigious cricket career when he will take the field in the second T20I of the three-match series against England by becoming the third Indian cricketer to play 500 international matches.

He will join the likes of legendary Indian cricketers-Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid who played over 500 international games.

Tendulkar played a total of 664 international games during his 24-year long international career while Dravid featured in 509 international games during his illustrious career.

The list topped by the Master Blaster is followed by Mahela Jayawardene (652), Kumar Sangakkara (594), Sanath Jayasuriya (586), Ricky Ponting (560), Shahid Afridi (524), Jacques Kallis (519) and Dravid (509).

36-year-old Dhoni made his international debut in 2004 in an ODI against Bangladesh.

His Test debut came in 2005 against Sri Lanka whereas his T20I debut was made in 2006 against South Africa. The right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman has so far played 499 international matches (90Tests, 318 ODIs and 91 T20Is) and today’s match will turn out to be his 500th international game.

Among other records held by Dhoni, he is the only captain in history to have won all three International Cricket Council’s (ICC) global trophies – World Twenty20 (2007), World Cup (2011) and Champions Trophy (2013).

And it was only under his leadership that the Men in Blue reached the top of the “ICC Test Team Rankings” for the very first time.

The 36-year-old retired from Test cricket in 2014. In a total of 90 matches, he gathered 4876 runs. In 2017, Dhoni quit as captain of the Indian cricket team in limited overs cricket as well. And Virat Kohli took over the leadership since then and has been leading the side in all the three formats of the game.

Altogether Dhoni is at 10th place behind former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq (499).