MS Dhoni’s achievement as a cricketer is surreal, to say the least. In particular, he has etched his name in the history books as one of India’s finest leaders.
Dhoni is the only skipper in the history of cricket to have won all three ICC white-ball trophies – 2007 World T20, 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy. He also led India to the pinnacle in Test cricket and captained CSK to five IPL titles and two Champions League trophies.
Therefore, picking the best moments from Dhoni’s glittering career is a tough task. But the man himself on Tuesday (December 2) singled out a top moment that won’t come again.
Dhoni recalled the famous ‘Vande Mataram’ choir from the 2011 World Cup final, saying India may win 100 more World Cups but that unique Wankhede moment can never be recreated.
“It was 15-20 minutes before the final delivery. Wankhede is not a very big stadium, but all the noise stays inside. The whole stadium started to chant Vande Mataram. It was not synchronised. It started somewhere but kept on moving like a Mexican Wave, but more with the voice. Standing in the middle, you could feel it moving around. In my cricketing career, I would say that was the best atmosphere, the best feeling I had at that point in time. Emotionally, I got very high, and that was a very touching moment," Dhoni said while speaking at an event.
“It is very difficult to recreate that kind of moment. India dobara bhi jeetegi, Women’s team jeetegi, Men’s team jeetegi, India mai jeetegi, India ke bahar jeetegi, bhagwan kare 100 baar jeetegi (India will win again, the Women’s team will win, the Men’s team will win, they will win in India and outside India as well, may god make them win 100 times), but the whole essence of how the game started, what went through, and how we started the run-chase, all those things matter," he added.
While MS Dhoni retired from international cricket in 2019, he continues to feature in the Indian Premier League. He is set to represent CSK in the IPL 2026, having been retained by the franchise last month.
