At 36, MS Dhoni Is Still Piling Up Records And That’s Why He Should Be There For The 2019 World Cup

While the fortunes of the Indian cricket team have taken a dramatic upswing after they started their tour of South Africa with consecutive defeats in the first two Test matches, there is one man who has silently gone about his business while ticking off a couple milestones.

Former India captain MS Dhoni, at the age of 36, has shown few signs of slowing as an unparalleled wicketkeeper in limited-overs cricket. His swiftness behind the stumps has been a pivotal factor in India winning the ODI leg of their tour 5-1 - the first series win by an Indian team on South African soil - and in the first Twenty20 international Dhoni again was in action behind the stumps to add another record to his name.

During the third match of the ODI series, Dhoni had become the fourth wicketkeeper to effect 400 dismissals in ODIs, after Kumar Sangakkara (482 in 404 games), Adam Gilchrist (472 in 287) and Mark Boucher (424 in 295).

During the first T20I on Sunday, Dhoni’s dismissal of Reeza Hendricks, off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, was his 134th catch in T20 cricket which gave him the record of most catches in the format. Dhoni broke the existing record of Sangakkara, who had claimed 133 catches in 254 T20 matches.

Dhoni already owns the record for most dismissal in T20Is, having effected 77 in the format - 48 catches and 29 stumpings. The 48 catches that Dhoni has taken in 87 T20Is is already a world record.

Some of the other records that belong to Dhoni include most centuries while batting at No 7, most sixes as captain in ODIs, most stumpings in international cricket, highest score by a wicketkeeper in ODIs and most T20I matches won as captain.

With 9967 runs in ODI cricket, Dhoni is 33 runs away from joining Sri Lankan great Sangakkara as the second wicketkeeper-batsman to the landmark of 10,000 runs in the format. It is another feather in Dhoni’s cap that will surely be added when India next play ODIs this summer in England.

The World Cup is just over a year away and there's no reason why he should not be playing in the side at that point.