Claim: MS Dhoni is an athlete.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni -LRB- ; commonly known as MS Dhoni ; born 7 July 1981 -RRB- is an Indian cricketer who captained the Indian team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2016 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014 . An attacking right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper , he is widely regarded as one of the greatest finishers in limited-overs cricket . He is also regarded to be one of the best wicket-keepers in world cricket and is known to have very fast hands . He made his One Day International -LRB- ODI -RRB- debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh , and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka .   Dhoni holds numerous captaincy records such as most wins by an Indian captain in Tests and ODIs , and most back-to-back wins by an Indian captain in ODIs . He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007 and led the team to its first-ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand . Under his captaincy , India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 , the CB Series of 2007 -- 08 , the 2010 Asia Cup , the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy . In the final of the 2011 World Cup , Dhoni scored 91 not out off 79 balls handing India the victory for which he was awarded the Man of the Match . In June 2013 , when India defeated England in the final of the Champions Trophy in England , Dhoni became the first captain to win all three ICC limited-overs trophies -LRB- World Cup , Champions Trophy and the World Twenty20 -RRB- . After taking up the Test captaincy in 2008 , he led the team to series wins in New Zealand and West Indies , and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008 , 2010 and 2013 . In 2009 , Dhoni also led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test rankings . In 2013 , under his captaincy , India became the first team in more than 40 years to whitewash Australia in a Test series . In the Indian Premier League , he captained the Chennai Super Kings to victory at the 2010 and 2011 seasons , along with wins in the 2010 and 2014 editions of Champions League Twenty20 . He announced his retirement from Tests on 30 December 2014 .   Dhoni holds the post of Vice-President of India Cements Ltd. , after resigning from Air India . India Cements is the owner of the IPL team Chennai Super Kings , and Dhoni has been its captain since the first IPL season .  Dhoni is the co-owner of Indian Super League team Chennaiyin FC .   Dhoni has been the recipient of many awards , including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 -LRB- the first player to win the award twice -RRB- , the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2007 and the Padma Shri , India 's fourth highest civilian honour , in 2009 . He was named as the captain of ICC World Test XI and ICC World ODI XI teams for 2009 . The Indian Territorial Army conferred the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel to Dhoni on 1 November 2011 . He is the second Indian cricketer after Kapil Dev to have received this honour . In 2011 , Time magazine included Dhoni in its annual Time 100 list as one of the `` Most Influential People in the World . '' In 2012 , SportsPro rated Dhoni as the sixteenth most marketable athlete in the world . In June 2015 , Forbes ranked Dhoni at 23rd in the list of highest paid athletes in the world , estimating his earnings at US$ 31 million . In 2016 , a biopic M.S. Dhoni : The Untold Story was made on him .