What makes Dhoni India's best captain ever!

Rajneesh Gupta salutes Captain Cool.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's surprise resignation as India's limited overs skipper on Wednesday, January 4, brings to an end one of the most successful captaincy tenures in cricketing history.

A surprise choice for the captaincy in 2007, under Dhoni India has won everything possible, both in the 50 overs and the T20 format -- including the World T20 title in 2007, the 50 overs World Cup in 2011 and the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.

Dhoni led India in 199 ODIs, of which India won 110 matches. At home he captained the team to 43 wins out of 73 matches.

Dhoni's record as captain in ODIs:

	Mts	Won	Lost	Tied	NR	Win%
In India	73	43	26	1	3	58.90
In the opposition's venues	86	39	39	2	6	45.35
In neutral venues	40	28	9	1	2	70.00
Total	199	110	74	4	11	55.28

Dhoni enjoys the best captaincy record against Bangladesh, among all the Test playing nations, having won eight games out of 11 for a success percentage of 72 against the neighbours.

On other hand, Australia proved to be tough opposition, with India winning just 14 games out of 40 against the Aussies under Dhoni's leadership.

Against Pakistan, Dhoni guided India to 11 wins out of 18 games.

Dhoni's ODI captaincy record against each country:

Opposition	Mts	Won	Lost	Tied	No Result	Win%
Australia	40	14	21	0	5	35.00
Bangladesh	11	8	3	0	0	72.73
England	28	17	8	2	1	60.71
Hong Kong	1	1	0	0	0	100.00
Ireland	2	2	0	0	0	100.00
The Netherlands	1	1	0	0	0	100.00
New Zealand	18	8	8	1	1	44.44
Pakistan	18	11	7	0	0	61.11
South Africa	19	8	10	0	1	42.11
Sri Lanka	41	25	13	1	2	60.98
United Arab Emirates	1	1	0	0	0	100.00
West Indies	15	10	4	0	1	66.66
Zimbabwe	4	4	0	0	0	100.00

Dhoni first captained India in an ODI in 2007, against Australia at Bangalore -- the first ODI of a seven match series which was eventually washed out because of rain.

The extra burden of captaincy never really impacted Dhoni, who boasts of a better record as a skipper than as a player.

He played 84 ODIs before he was appointed captain and his performance only got better when he was handed the reins of the team.

Comparing Dhoni's record as a player and as a captain:

	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50s
As a player	84	2,477	183*	44.23	96.26	3	14
As Captain	199	6,633	139*	53.92	86.29	6	47

As expected, Dhoni's record as a batsman in ODIs is top notch.

He has an impressive tally of 1,596 runs against Sri Lanka at an average of 61, while also scoring 1,204 runs against Australia.

Against England, he has made 901 runs at an average of 53, while also scoring 723 and 684 against New Zealand and Pakistan respectively.

Dhoni's batting record in T20Is as a captain against each country:

Opposition	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50s
Australia	40	1,204	139*	43.00	80.91	2	6
Bangladesh	11	319	101*	63.80	86.68	1	1
England	28	901	87*	53.00	93.27	0	8
Hong Kong	1	109	109*	-	113.54	1	0
Ireland	2	34	34	34.00	68.00	0	0
The Netherlands	1	19	19*	-	47.50	0	0
New Zealand	18	723	84*	55.61	80.24	0	6
Pakistan	18	684	113*	57.00	82.50	1	5
South Africa	19	531	92*	35.40	91.70	0	3
Sri Lanka	41	1,596	107	61.38	87.40	1	14
UAE	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
West Indies	15	428	95	71.33	91.64	0	3
Zimbabwe	4	85	85*	-	111.84	0	1

Captain Cool first made his mark as skipper in the T20 format, when he led a young squad to the World T20 title in the inaugural edition of the tournament in South Africa in 2007.

He has led India in 72 T20 Internationals, with India winning 42 out of them.

Dhoni as captain in T20Is:

	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	NR	Win%
In India	20	10	10	0	0	50.00
In opposition venues	23	13	10	0	0	56.52
In neutral venues	29	19	8	0	2	65.52
Total	72	42	28	0	2	58.33

As captain, Dhoni boasts of a good record against Pakistan with India losing just one out of eight T20Is against them.

India never lost a T20 game to Bangladesh under his leadership.

Dhoni's T20I captaincy record against each country:

Opposition	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	NR	Win%
Australia	13	9	4	0	0	69.23
Bangladesh	5	5	0	0	0	100.00
England	8	3	5	0	0	37.50
Ireland	1	1	0	0	0	100.00
Afghanistan	2	2	0	0	0	100.00
New Zealand	5	0	5	0	0	0.00
Pakistan	8	7	1	0	0	87.50
Scotland	1	0	0	0	1	0.00
South Africa	9	5	4	0	0	55.56
Sri Lanka	10	6	4	0	0	60.00
United Arab Emirates	1	1	0	0	0	100.00
West Indies	6	1	4	0	1	16.66
Zimbabwe	3	2	1	0	0	66.66

Interestingly, Dhoni has played just one match as just a player for India in the T20 format, way back in 2006 against South Africa in Johannesburg.

Dhoni's batting record in T20Is as a player/captain

	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50s
As a player	1	0	0	0.00	0.00	0	0
As captain	72	1,112	48*	37.06	122.60	0	0

Dhoni has played 13 T20Is against Australia, scoring 231 runs at an average of 38.

He has played 10 games against Sri Lanka, against whom he scored 129 runs, but he hasn't played too many games against the other teams.

Dhoni's batting record in T20Is as a captain against each country

Opposition	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50s
Afghanistan	2	33	18*	-	220.00	0	0
Australia	13	231	48*	38.50	113.79	0	0
Bangladesh	5	89	26	89.00	167.92	0	0
England	8	167	38	41.75	131.49	0	0
Ireland	1	14	14	14.00	107.69	0	0
New Zealand	5	106	30	35.33	97.24	0	0
Pakistan	8	93	33	23.25	119.23	0	0
Scotland	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
South Africa	9	124	45	41.33	129.16	0	0
Sri Lanka	10	129	46	32.25	119.44	0	0
UAE	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
West Indies	6	98	43	32.66	130.66	0	0
Zimbabwe	3	28	19*	28.00	93.33	0	0

India has consistently won trophies under Dhoni's leadership, starting with the 2007 World T20 triumph to the Asia Cup T20 victory in Bangladesh last year.

The 2011 50 overs World Cup triumph would certainly rank as the highest point of his career, which saw India win back the World Cup after a long wait of nearly 28 years.

India's tournament wins under Dhoni's captaincy:

	Year	Format
ICC World T20 in South Africa	2007	T20I
Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia	2008	ODI
Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka	2009	ODI
Asia Cup in Sri Lanka	2010	ODI
ICC World Cup in India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh	2011	ODI
ICC Champions Trophy in England	2013	ODI
Celkon Mobile Cup in the West Indies	2013	ODI
Asia Cup T20 in Bangladesh	2016	T20I

Dhoni is second in the list as the most successful captain with the bat in ODIs, just behind A B de Villiers, who boasts of a better average and a strike rate.

Dhoni has the better tally of runs with 6,633 from 199 games as compared to de Villiers, who has 4,219 runs from 87 One-Dayers.

For most part of his career, Dhoni came in at No 5 or No 6 or below and has been content to play the role of finisher as against de Villiers or Kane Williamson or Steve Smith, all top order batsmen.

Most successful captains with bat in ODIs (Minimum 25 matches):

	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50s
AB de Villiers	87	4,219	162*	65.92	111.05	13	22
M S Dhoni	199	6,633	139*	53.92	86.29	6	47
Kane Williamson	30	1,367	123	50.62	81.03	2	10
Steve Smith	33	1,433	164	49.41	87.32	4	8
Ashish Bagai (Canada)	27	1,011	92*	48.14	68.86	0	10
Kumar Sangakkara	45	1,756	111	47.45	84.30	1	14
Michael Clarke	74	2,745	117	45.75	77.19	5	17
Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe)	34	1,369	138	45.63	85.77	5	7
Martin Crowe	44	1,634	100*	45.38	70.09	1	13
Greg Chappell	49	1,718	138*	45.21	74.69	3	12

Dhoni is also second in the list of most successful captains with the bat in T20 Internationals, just behind Faf du Plessis, his former Chennai Super Kings team-mate.

Most successful captains with the bat in T20Is (Minimum 25 matches):

	Matches	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	100s	50s
Faf du Plessis	31	1,003	119	40.12	130.93	1	6
M S Dhoni	72	1,112	48*	37.06	122.60	0	0
Graeme Smith	27	803	89*	32.12	127.46	0	4
Brendon McCullum	28	735	74	29.40	130.78	0	5
Mohammad Hafeez	29	753	86	28.96	115.31	0	5
George Bailey	28	470	63	26.11	140.71	0	2

Photographs: BCCI