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India's string of away Test defeats a blot on Dhoni's captaincy record

December 30, 2014 16:00 IST

Factbox on former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who quit Test cricket on Tuesday.

Born: July 7, 1981 in Ranchi.

- Dhoni retires from Tests citing strain of playing all formats, says BCCI

Nickname: Mahi.

Made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 2005, scoring 30 in the rain-hit match in Chennai.

He went on to play 90 Tests for India, amassing 4876 runs at a 38-plus average, hitting six centuries and 33 fifties. He also took 256 catches and contributed 38 stumpings.

Dhoni's highest Test score of 224 came against Australia in February 2013.

The wicketkeeper-batsman made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in late 2004 and was run out for a first ball duck in the Chittagong match.

Dhoni has played 250 ODIs, scoring 8192 runs, averaging 52.85 with a strike rate in the vicinity of 90. He has hit nine centuries in this format to go with 56 fifties.

He has also played 50 Twenty20 Internationals, scoring 849 runs, averaging nearly 34 with a 116 strike rate.

Under his captaincy, India won the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007, the 50-over World Cup in 2011 and remained the number one Test team for 18 months from December 2009.

He received Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sports honour, in 2007.

Known for his penchant to seal a victory with a six, Dhoni's trademark "helicopter" shot has amused fans who have also hailed his unflappable temperament.

India's string of away Test defeats remains a blot on his captaincy records, though, and the emergence of Virat Kohli was seen as an alternative.

He surpassed retired great Sachin Tendulkar as the highest-earning Indian sportsman but remains a fiercely private person.

Image: Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Photograph: Michael Dodge/Getty Images