You Have Been My Inspiration & Will Always Be, Says Suresh Raina On MS Dhoni's 37th Birthday

Suresh Raina did not take long to wish his teammate Mahendra Singh Dhoni after the legendary wicketkeeper-batsman turned 37 on Saturday (July 7). 

One of the greatest players to have graced the field, Dhoni has carved his own place in the history of the game. Throughout his illustrious career, he kept on defying odds to achieve unprecedented success.

Dhoni began his career in the worst possible manner, getting run-out for a duck but soon became a crowd favourite after slamming 148 against Pakistan in only his fifth One-Day International. There was no looking back since then as he established himself as one of India’s premier batsman in ODIs. The most memorable moment of his early part of the career came in 2007 when he led a bunch of youngsters to the World T20 title in South Africa. He was soon given the captaincy in all the format and the rest is all history. Till date, he is the only skipper to have won all the ICC events after leading India to World Cup glory in 2011 followed by the Champions Trophy title in 2013. He also led the Indian team to the pinnacle of Test cricket in 2009 in addition to winning several historic overseas series.

His record as a batsman is equally impressive.  He just needs 33 runs to score 10,000 runs in One-Day Internationals. In 90 Tests, he scored 4,874 runs before retiring. In T20Is, he has amassed 1,487 runs in 92 outings. Dhoni is one of the finest finishers the game has ever witnessed and is looking good to grace the game for many months to come. On Friday, he also became only the third Indian to play international games.

And as he turned 37, Raina took to Twitter to post a special message for the birthday boy, tweeting:

“Walking out of your 500th international match. And gracefully walking into the blessed day of India, when a legend like you was born! Wish you a very Happy Birthday brother @msdhoni ?You have been my inspiration & will always be! I cherish all our good times! #HappyBirthdayMSDhoni”

Walking out of your 500th international match & gracefully walking into the blessed day of India, when a legend like you was born! Wish you a very Happy Birthday brother @msdhoni ?You have been my inspiration & will always be! I cherish all our good times! #HappyBirthdayMSDhoni pic.twitter.com/YinwMNSAgz

— Suresh Raina?? (@ImRaina) July 6, 2018