Top five T20 innings of MS Dhoni for India

The selectors have dropped MS Dhoni from Indias T20I squad — The selectors have dropped MS Dhoni from India's T20I squad

Bengaluru, October 27: The national selectors gave the first indications on Friday night that the MS Dhoni show in Indian cricket is slowly winding up, dropping him from the T20I squads to face West Indies and Australia.

Of course, Dhoni will continue to be a part of the ODI set up at least till the 2019 World Cup in England but his T20I career seemed to have come to a full stop with the selectors looking at a long term option in Rishabh Pant. Here's MyKhel looks at Dhoni's best moment as a T20 player for India and his five best innings.

The Best Moment

It has to be the day when Dhoni lifted the ICC World T20 title beating Pakistan in the final in 2007. Dhoni was a young man leading a young bunch in that tournament. Some other teams like Australia came to the event with big names but India chose to look beyond titans like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. In the end, players like Yuvraj Singh, Joginder Sharma, RP Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma - all of them in the middle or nascent stages of their respective careers helped India win the trophy.

Best knocks: 1. 36 vs Australia, 2007

When Yuvraj fell for a 70 off 30 balls, India were still some distance away from a safe total in this World T20 match. Australia had some real big hitters in Hayden, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Brad Hodge etc and Dhoni's 36 off 18 balls (4x4, 1x6) carried India to 188/5. Sreesanth (2/12 in 4 overs) and Harbhajan Singh (1/24 in 4 overs) squeezed the Aussies but still they reached 173/7, underlining the value of Dhoni's innings.

2. 33 vs Pakistan, 2012

India were struggling for runs at 88/3 in the 12th over against Pakistan at Ahmedabad when Yuvraj (72 off 36 balls, 4x4, 7x6) joined forces with Dhoni (33, 23b, 4x4) and they milked Pakistan bowling for 97 runs in the next nine overs. Yuvraj was doing the bulk of scoring but the innings showcased the ability of Dhoni to play the support cast without robbing the in-form batsmen of strike. India won the match by 11 runs.

3. 56 vs England, 2017

At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Dhoni unleashed the power-hitter in him. England were chipping away with regular wickets and India were 120 for three in the 14th over when Suresh Raina fell for 63 off 45 balls. India needed acceleration from that point and Dhoni did just that powering India to 202/6 with a 56 off 36 balls (5x4, 2x6). With leggie Yuzvendra Chahal bagging 6/25, India won the match by a whopping 75 runs.

4. 45 vs South Africa, 2007

Morne Morkel, Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock had reduced India to 61/4 in 10.3 overs on a tough Durban pitch during this 2007 World T20 match. Downright shot-making was ruled out and Dhoni (45, 33 balls, 4x4, 1x6) in the company of Rohit Sharma (50, 40 balls, 7x4, 2x6) found other means to score runs and waiting for their chances to free the arms. The next 9 overs produced 85 runs - a crawl by the T20 standards but it was enough for India to reach 153/5. Then RP Singh (4/13), S Sreesanth (2/23) and Harbhajan Singh (2/31) limited SA to 116/9 as India raced to a comfortable 37-run win.

5. 46 vs Sri Lanka, 2009

Sri Lanka posted a heavy 206/7 after batting first and India had a tough task at hand at Chandigarh. Virender Sehwag belted a 36-ball 64 before getting out in the 11th over and India were 108/2 and they still needed 99 off the last nine overs. Dhoni (46, 28 balls, 3x4, 2x6) and Yuvraj (60 n.o,, 25b, 3x4, 5x6) amassed 80 runs off seven overs as India won by six wickets with five balls to spare.