Asia Cup 2018: Captaining 200th game is destiny, says MS Dhoni

Bengaluru, September 25: MS Dhoni will lead India in the dead Asia Cup 2018 rubber against Afghanistan on Tuesday (September 25) at Dubai, UAE. This will be Dhoni's 200th ODI as India skipper.

Dhoni will be leading India after 696 days and what is in the mind of the man himself. "Both our openers (Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan) are missing. Bhuvi, Bumrah and Chahal are missing too. The bench strength is important and when it comes to their talent, they're up there. Captaining my 200th game is just destiny," said Dhoni during the toss.

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Dhoni is the most decorated Indian captain of all the time. In his first assignment as India skipper, Dhoni led India to the World T20 title in South Africa in 2007 and since then man from Jharkhand has only scaled heights as skipper. In 2011, Dhoni led India to the ICC 50-Over World Cup held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In fact, Dhoni fittingly sealed the India's triumph with a huge six off Nuwan Kulasekara that touched the back rows of the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Two years down the line, Dhoni also led India to a title win in the ICC Champions Trophy in England (2013) and became the first captain in this game's history to win all the three coveted limited over titles.

Besides, his feats in the limited over formats, it was under Dhoni that India became the No 1 ranked in Tests for the first time in their history upstaging England from the pole position. The only blip during his career was the setbacks he suffered during the tour of England (2011, 2014) and Australia (2012). In the 13 Tests, India played in those countries during that time span, they won only one Test and drawing one.

Eventually, Dhoni retired from Tests mid-way during the Test series against Australia in 2015 handing over the reins to Virat Kohli. A year down the line, Dhoni relinquished the ODI and T20I captaincy too after the 2016 ICC World T2O giving the complete charge of Indian team to Kohli. However, he continues to play as a wicketkeeper and batsmen at the ripe age of 37 showing no signs of slowing down.