MS Dhoni’s 42nd birthday celebrated with ‘tallest cutout for a cricketer’

Legendary former India captain MS Dhoni turns 42 and fans across the country are celebrating the occasion in their own ways.

While there are many who would choose to reminisce some of the great moments the iconic wicketkeeper-batter has been involved in while playing for India and in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with Chennai Super Kings (CSK), some have gone a step further in expressing their love and admiration for Dhoni.

Images popped up on the eve of the special day that showed giant cut-outs of Dhoni in Hyderabad and in Nandigama, Andhra Pradesh. The cut out in Hyderabad is apparently 52 feet tall while the one in Nandigama is said to be 77 feet tall. While the former features Dhoni in his India jersey, the cut-out Nandigama features him in CSK’s training kit. There was also a video of milk poured over the cutout in Nandigama.

Fans celebrate MS Dhoni’s 42nd birthday with giant cutouts in different places

MS Dhoni is widely rated as one of the greatest Indian captains of all time and one of the most successful captains in the history of limited-overs cricket. He is the only captain to have won all three white-ball tournaments organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) – the T20 World Cup, the World Cup and the Champions Trophy.

He led India to the 2007 T20 World Cup title in what was his first-ever assignment as captain of the team. He then became just the second Indian after Kapil Dev in 1993 to have led the team to the ODI World Cup title in 2011. He then led India to their first outright win in a Champions Trophy final in 2013. It was technically India’s second Champions Trophy title, having shared the crown with Sri Lanka in 2002. Dhoni was also captain when India climbed to the top of the Test rankings for the first time in 2009.

Dhoni is also a defining figure in the history of the IPL. He has been captain of CSK since the inaugural IPL season and has led the team to a record five IPL titles. He jointly holds the record for most title wins as captain in the T20 league with Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma. Moreover, Dhoni has led CSK past the league stage of the tournament in all but two seasons.

Dhoni is regarded as one of the greatest finishers in the history of limited-overs cricket. He played 90 Test matches before abruptly retiring from the format in 2014, scoring 4876 runs with six centuries and 33 fifties at an average of 38.09. His 294 dismissals is the highest in Test cricket by an Indian wicketkeeper and the fifth-highest overall, only behind Mark Boucher, Adam Gilchrist, Ian Healy and Rodney Marsh.

In ODIs, he scored 10,773 runs in 350 matches at an average of 50.57 with 10 centuries and 73 half-centuries. Dhoni played 98 T20Is for India, scoring 1617 runs at a strike rate of 126.13 with two half centuries.