Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the most influential players in Indian sports. Most successful captain in Indian cricket as well as world cricket. His life journey is an inspiring journey that achieves much success.

We already published articles about MS Dhoni’s life, his Inspiring thoughts, and some interesting known, unknown facts. In this article, we are sharing MS Dhoni timeline from his birth to become a cricket legend.

So, let’s read MS Dhoni’s timeline below.

MS Dhoni Timeline

• 1981: Born

MS Dhoni was born on 7 July 1981 in Ranchi, Jharkhand from a Hindu Rajput family.

• 1987: Joined in school

Dhoni joined at DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali, Ranchi to study.

• 1995-1998: Started wicket keeping

Dhoni became the regular wicket-keeper at the Commando cricket club.

• 1997/98: Picked for Vinoo Mankad Trophy

Dhoni was picked for the 1997/98 season Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-16 Championship.

• 1998-99: Included in Bihar U-19 squad

Dhoni was included in the Bihar U-19 squad and scored 176 runs in 5 matches.

• 1999: Picked for Cooch Behar Trophy

Dhoni selected and played Cooch Behar Trophy under the Bihar U-19 cricket team and scored 488 runs in 12 innings.

• 1999: Ranji debut

Dhoni made his debut in Ranji Trophy for Bihar in the 1999–2000 season and scored 283 runs in 5 matches.

• 2001-2003: Dhoni got job

Dhoni was a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) at Kharagpur railway station, under South Eastern Railway in Midnapore, West Bengal.

• 2004: Dhoni’s talent discovered by TRDW

Dhoni’s talent was discovered by BCCI’s small-town talent-spotting initiative TRDW (Talent Resource Development Wing) in Deodhar trophy in 2003-04 season and his name was suggested to the National Cricket Academy.

• 2004: Selection for India A ODI squad

Dhoni was selected for India A ODI squad for the tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya in the 2003-04 season. He showed his best wicket-keeping skill in a match against the Zimbabwe XI.

• 2004: Selection for India A squad for Triangular Tournament

Dhoni selected for India A squad for Triangular Tournament between India A, Pakistan A and Kenya.

• Aug 12, 2004: Debut and played first match

Dhoni made his debut against Kenya and played his first match, opened the innings and scored only 8 runs in India A.

• Aug 13, 2004: Played a remarkable innings

Dhoni played a remarkable innings by scoring 70 runs and helped India A to chase down their target of 223 against India.

• Aug 16, 2004: Scored century

Dhoni scored 120 runs, his first century for India A team along with Gautam Gambhir(122 runs), and India A won that match by 121 runs.

• Aug 19, 2004: Scored second century

Dhoni scored his second century (119 runs) against Pakistan. Dhoni was the highest scorer of that series scored 362 runs in 6 innings with an average of 72.40.

• December 23, 2004: ODI Debut

Dhoni was selected in the ODI squad for the Bangladesh tour in the 2004-05 season. He made his ODI debut on Dec 23 2004 against Bangladesh. But failed in that series, scored only 19 runs in 3 matches at an average of 9.5.

• 2004-05: ODI series against Pakistan

Dhoni was picked for the Pakistan ODI series in 2004-05. He failed in the first match but in the second match of the series, he scored 148 runs from 123 balls, and hold the record for the highest score by an Indian wicket-keeper.

• October 31, 2005: Scored unbeaten 183 runs

Dhoni scored unbeaten 183 off 145 balls and helped India to chase down a target of 299 against Srilanka.

• December 2005: Dhoni’s debut in Test Cricket

Dhoni debuted in the Test match against Srilanka and scored 30 runs in his debut match.

• December 2006: Made his T20I debut

MS Dhoni made his T20I debut against South Africa.

• September 2007: Became ODI captain

Dhoni became the ODI captain of the Indian team.

• September 13, 2007: Debut as Captain of Indian T20 team

MS Dhoni debut as Captain of Indian T20 team against Scotland.

• September 24, 2007: Won 2007 ICC World T20

Under his captaincy, India won ICC World Twenty20 2007.

• April 2008: Became Part time captain

Dhoni became the Part time captain led the Indian Test team.

• 2008: Joined IPL franchise

Dhoni joined IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings.

• Won IPL Titles:

Under his captaincy, CSK won 3 IPL titles in 2010, 2011, 2018 and and 2 Champions League T20 titles in 2010 and 2014.

• Joining another franchise Rising Pune Supergiant

In the year 2016 & 2017, he was a part of Rising Pune Supergiant, when CSK was banned for 2 years.

• November 2008: Debut as full-time Test captain

Dhoni makes his debut as full-time Test captain of India during the fourth and final Test against Australia at Nagpur.

• 2009: Reached to No. 1 Test Rankings

Under his captaincy that India reached to No. 1 in the ICC Test Rankings in December 2009.

• 2010: Marriage

Dhoni married his schoolmate Sakshi Singh Rawat on 4 July 2010.

• April 2, 2011: Won 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup

India won 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup under his captaincy.

• 2011: Included as “Most Influential People in the World”

Time magazine included Dhoni in its annual Time 100 list as one of the “Most Influential People in the World”.

• 2012: Rated as 6th marketable athlete

SportsPro rated Dhoni as the sixteenth most marketable athlete in the world.

• March 2013: Became most successful Indian Test captain

Dhoni became the most successful Indian Test captain and he crossed Sourav Ganguly’s record of 21 test wins.

• 23 June 2013: Won 2013 ICC Champions Trophy

India won 2013 ICC Champions Trophy under his captaincy.

• 2014: Reached in final 2014 ICC World T20

India reached final in 2014 ICC World T20.

• December 2014: Retirement from Test cricket

After the third Test in Melbourne, Dhoni announced his retirement from the Test format.

• 2015: Reached semifinal in 2015 ICC World cup

India reached semifinal in 2015 ICC World cup.

• 2015: Dhoni’s daughter born

Dhoni has a daughter named Ziva who born on 6 February 2015.

• 2015: Ranked 23rd highest-paid athletes

Forbes ranked Dhoni at 23rd in the list of highest-paid athletes in the world in June 2015.

• 2016: Dhoni’s movie released

M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, a biographical film based on the life of Dhoni, was made and released on 30 September 2016.

• 2016: Launched his brand

Dhoni launched a brand called SEVEN in February 2016.

• January 2017: Left his captaincy from ODI & T20I

He left his captaincy in January 2017 and give all the responsibility to Virat Kohli.

• 2017: Named as wicket keeping of the ‘Team of the Tournament’

Dhoni named as a wicketkeeper of the ‘Team of the Tournament’ at the 2017 Champions Trophy by Cricbuzz.

• 2018: Dhoni crosses 10,000 ODI runs. (List of most runs scored in ODI career)

• 2020: Retired from ODI and T20I on 15th August 2020.