The third T20I between New Zealand and India is highly important for both teams given that the series is tied 1-1 after New Zealand winning in Wellington and India coming back in Auckland. However, this T20I became special for MS Dhoni as well.

Dhoni, who affected a brilliant stumping to send back Tim Seifert off the bowling of Kuldeep Yadav, joined the elite list of players to appear in 300 T20 matches. The list includes players like Chris Gayle, Shoaib Malik, Dwayne Bravo and is led by Kieron Pollard with 446 T20 appearances.

Dhoni, who also became the first Indian to appear in 300 T20 matches, has played 96 T20I matches for India and the rest of appearances have come for Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiant in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and includes matches in the now-defunct T20 Champions League.

Dhoni is already tied at no.3 with Mohammad Azharuddin for the most ODIs for India with 334 appearances, despite having appeared in 337 ODIs overall, with three matches for Asia XI.

Current head coach Ravi Shastri had this to say about MS Dhoni “He is still a great batsman, and is finishing matches for us. You saw in Adelaide, and he has been in terrific form this year. He may not be Dhoni of 2008 or 2011. But experience is not bought or sold in the market.”

MS Dhoni has 10415 runs in 337 ODIs, 4876 runs in 90 Tests and 6134 runs in 299 T20 matches so far. He also has 812 dismissals (caught+stumped) behind the stumps in international cricket and is the only wicketkeeper to have more than 100 stumpings in ODI history.