Legendary India cricketer MS Dhonihad a modest beginning to his career. He slowly turned out to become India's most fearless and aggressive batters. Dhoni's calm leadership and lightning-fast glove-work was an added bonus to his already widespread repertoire.
Over the years, there were a lot of historic milestones which Dhoni achieved with India. He became the first captain to win all three white-ball titles; T20 World Cup in 2007, 2011 ODI World Cup and the Champions Trophy in 2013. India also reached
the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings for the first time under his leadership.
Dhoni has over 17,000 international runs under his belt. By the time he announced retirement from international cricket, he had 634 catches and 195 stumpings, stepping down as one of the most successful wicketkeeper-batters of all time, featuring in a total of 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20Is.
Many cricketers in the Indian team made their international debut around the same time as Dhoni, and while some of them went on to illustrious careers, a few also had their life taking different turns after being in the limelight of the game at the highest level.
Here are 5 Indian players who debuted with MS Dhoni and where they are now
5. S Sreesanth
Sreesanthmade his Test debut a few months after Dhoni's introduction in the red-ball arena. The right-arm speedster was quite sharp with his bowling and was also a part of the title-winning campaigns in 2007 and 2011. There were many occasions where Sreesanth was the frontline pacer, and that too across formats.
However, things took a sharp turn after he was amongst three players from Rajasthan Royals who were accused of match-fixing in 2013. The BCCI put a lifetime ban from the cricketer. After Sreesanth's revised seven-year ban ended, he even represented Kerala in KCA President's Cup T20 tournament in late 2020 and then in the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Now, he is a commentator with JioStar.
4. Dinesh Karthik
Not many would be aware about Dinesh Karthikhaving debuted in Tests and ODIs earlier than Dhoni. The Tamil Nadu-born made a reasonable international career out of the opportunities he was provided with. After Dhoni came to the fore, he was majorly used as a backup to the Ranchi-born, since the latter's batting was much superior to Karthik's.
Karthik opened the batting during India's 1–0 series win against England in England during the tour of 2007. That particular series was one of the highlights of his career. He ended up as India's leading run-getter. After retiring from international cricket, Karthik has tapped into the spaces comprising mentoring as well as commentary. He is currently with RCB in a coaching role, and also plays in franchise leagues like SA20 and ILT20.
3. Joginder Sharma
Joginder Sharma made his ODI debut alongside Dhoni, during the 2004 tour of Bangladesh. India had won that match by 11 runs, with Dhoni bagging a golden duck. Meanwhile, Joginder impressed by registering figures of 1/28 in eight overs. Cut to the final of the T20 World Cup 2007, Joginder was the star of the contest. He picked up the famous wicket of Misbah-ul-Haq to win it for the Men in Blue.
However, that memorable match in Johannesburg turned out to be his last one for India. He had made a decision to leave cricket and join the Haryana Police and Joginder currently serves as the Deputy Superintendent of Police. He announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in February 2023. Joginder's final professional match came for Haryana in March 2017.
2. Suresh Raina
Suresh Rainamade his white-ball debut a few months post Dhoni. The two soon became regulars of both the ODI and T20I squads. Raina became one of Dhoni's most trusted teammates as time went by. The duo's bond enhanced with their shared time at CSK. Although Raina's Test career never took off, he made ODIs and T20Is his own with the bat as well as the field.
Raina scored 5615 runs in 226 ODIs at an average of 35.31 and 1605 runs while striking at 134.87. The Uttar Pradesh-born was a sort of player whose contributions went rather unnoticed. Some of his knocks like the ones against Australia and Pakistan in the 2011 World Cup proved out to be match-defining ones. Raina, like the others, joined commentary after retiring from all forms of cricket in September 2022.
1. Venugopal Rao
Venugopal Raoand Suresh Raina shared the same international debut. Unfortunately, unlike Raina, Rao could not make it big on the international stage. He ended up playing only 16 ODIs and did not receive any call-up to the Test or T20I sides. His sole half-century in 11 innings was an unbeaten 61-run knock off 93 balls against Pakistan, which comprised only three fours.
Rao had quite a decent domestic record, though. The middle-order batter tallied for 7081 and 4110 runs in 121 First-Class and 137 50-over appearances, respectively. He played seven IPL seasons but did not boast of any extraordinary record. Rao was appointed as the Director of Cricket of Delhi Capitals ahead of the 2025 IPL season.
