MS Dhoni is now officially a former India player. It will take a while to sink in, irrespective of the announcement being expected since Covid-19 postponed the T20 World Cup this year.

Having started his international career in 2004, Dhoni is one of the last links to that age of innocence, before social media and all the manifold changes that came with it. That means he has been a huge part of the lives of Wisden India correspondents from an impressionable age.

We sat down to pick our favourite moments of Dhoni – be it a knock against a particular opposition, a gesture, a little-known anecdote, or anything else. Some crazy stories emerged.

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Manoj Narayan, Wisden India editor

Since beginning my career in journalism a decade ago, I’ve always gone the extra mile to never allow the fan in me to cloud my judgement. To a large extent, I’ve been successful. However, that resolve was never more threatened than when it came to Dhoni. Having watched live a few of his knocks through the last decade – that 92* against South Africa in Indore, 2015 was something else – the struggle always was to ensure no partisanship was displayed in the press box when he was on.

Maybe now is the time to finally make public one embarrassing incident with the man – it still makes me shudder – in the early days of my career. It was a pre-match press conference in Kanpur. Having prepared my question down to the wording diligently, the chance finally came to ask him. Just as I was about to speak out my well-rehearsed words, somebody suddenly interrupted to ask their own question. The press officer promptly shut him down, and Dhoni looked back at me.

If you're going to watch one MS Dhoni video today, make sure it's this one 👇

Sixes all round the park! 🏟️pic.twitter.com/8er1CEiOOt

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) August 16, 2020

It was time to ask my question, but the worst thing happened: I froze. The mind was blank, and I watched nervously as Dhoni slowly broke into a chuckle. “Hah! Forgot?”, he asked with that charming smile. It was cue for the whole room to erupt in laughter. Thankfully, everyone promptly moved on.

That effect Dhoni has on people – OK, me – perhaps has something to do with the connect he has with a lot of millennials from small-town India. Having emerged from a cricketing outpost in Ranchi, and by breaking that barrier to mainstream India, Dhoni’s effect on wider India goes well beyond cricket. It will remain his greatest legacy.

Aadya Sharma, Wisden India staff writer

This wasn’t an international game. My friend and I sneaked into the Palam Air Force Ground, on the outskirts of Delhi, to watch him turn up for his state Jharkhand in the 2017 Vijay Hazare Trophy. The experience was surreal. The man somehow attracts crowds irrespective of how far-flung the venues are. As the word spread, the audience swelled up exponentially – it was amazing to see the usually lifeless little ground light up with onlookers, all of whom lined up along the adjoining road, manning one half of the boundary.

The roar was reserved for the second innings, when Dhoni ambled out to bat, finishing the chase himself – surprise, surprise – with a characteristic bottom-handed six that’s still etched in memory. In the middle of his innings, he even obliged a fan who had breached the makeshift cordon, and ran onto the pitch for an autograph. Even as a waning superstar, his larger-than-life persona remained incomparable.

Roshan Gede, Wisden India staff writer

“Before I start, I should say I read an article by you in Cricinfo. You’d said Australia were the favourites. Today, I think me and my boys, we proved you wrong.” – A young MS Dhoni said this to Ravi Shastri after India defeated Australia in the 2007 T20 World Cup semi-final.

In many ways, it marked the beginning of a new era, the start of Dhoni’s India. The penultimate over was a case in point. Australia needed 25 off nine deliveries. Logic, history and Mike Hussey’s presence all suggested India would lose. When Hussey mistimed one to deep square-leg, Rohit Sharma took it on the bounce, all too casually, before throwing it back to Dhoni. ‘Run … go for the catch’, Dhoni gestured back to him, in an utterly relaxed, polite manner. In that tense situation, in a World Cup semi-final at the centre of a buzzing venue, Dhoni was somehow the picture of calm. India would go on to win the match by 15 runs.

[caption id=”attachment_171221″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] “You’d said Australia were the favourites. Today, I think me and my boys, we proved you wrong”[/caption]

“It is not about 95 per cent at this level and with this much exposure, it is about 100 per cent,” he told Mark Nicholas in a rare, gripping interview back in 2014. As strict a principle as it sounds, he always knew the right way to channel it to his young charges. The calmness never once wavered.

Sankalp Srivastava, Wisden India staff writer

My favourite Dhoni moment has to be the last-ball run-out against Bangladesh in the 2016 T20 World Cup. I was about three months into my first job with a sports website in Bangalore. The tournament had begun, and my folks were in town. We decided to go to the Chinnaswamy Stadium for this highly-billed clash. It was my parents’ first experience watching a match live, and they were visibly distraught after Rahim hit Pandya for a four to bring the equation for Bangladesh down to two off the last three balls.

It was all over, we thought. India were crashing out of the T20 World Cup, and the ‘family outing’ was set to end rather dourly. But Dhoni, like he had done so many times over the years, brought everything back on track with that cool last-ball run-out. The collective happiness of fans as we poured out the stadium that night was unlike anything I had ever experienced.