Birmingham: India's Midas-touch skipper, who until the current England series was the toast of 1.2 billion people, experienced the greatness of cricket as a leveller on Saturday. MS Dhoni has lost his first Test series as skipper, and with that, the Test No. 1 crown.England needed to beat India by a two-Test margin in the four-Test series to become No. 1. And a win in the third Test by a humiliating margin of an innings and 242 runs gave the hosts an unassailable 3-0 lead that knocked India off their perch.
The series loss against England on Saturday was Dhoni's first as India's Test skipper.
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But it's as much about Dhoni as it is about India losing the crown. The maverick who was used to collecting trophies until Saturday stares at a scenario that he never witnessed before in his fairytale career. From a ticket collector in the Indian Railways to World Cup winner, the Ranchi lad never came across a low in his journey from a boy to a man.
Every aspect of his cricket, including wicket-keeping, batting and captaincy - has blown away on this tour. And now it's time for the India skipper to retrospect and come back stronger.
Here is Dhoni's record as captain of India in Test series so far:
- vs South Africa in India* in 2007-08, drawn the 3-match series 1-1 (coming from behind)
- vs Australia in India# in 2008-09, won the 4-match series 2-0
- vs England in India in 2008-09, won the 2-match series 1-0
- vs New Zealand in NZ^ in 2008-09, won the 3-match series 1-0
- vs Sri Lanka in India+ in 2009-10 won the 3 match series 2-0
- vs Bangladesh in Bangladesh** in 2009-10, won the 2-match series 2-0
- vs South Africa in India in 2009-10, drawn the 2-match series 1-1 (coming from behind)
- vs Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in 2010, drawn the 3-match series 1-1 (coming from behind)
- vs Australia in India in 2010-11, won the 2-match series 2-0
- vs New Zealand in India in 2010-11, won the 3-match series 1-0
- vs South Africa in South Africa in 2010-11, drawn the 3 match series 1-1 (coming from behind)
- vs West Indies in West Indies in 2011, won the 3 match series 1-0
- vs England in England in 2011, trailing the 4 match series 0-3
* Dhoni captained only in the third Test in the absence of regular captain Anil Kumble. India were 0-1 down at that time, but a win by 8 wickets in this Test helped them level the series 1-1.
# The series comprised of four matches, but Dhoni captained only in the second and fourth match. Kumble was the regular captain. He captained in the first Test, missed the second and announced his retirement after leading in the third. India won both the matches in which Dhoni was captain.
^ The series comprised three matches, but Dhoni captained only in two (first and third). Virender Sehwag captained in the second drawn Test.
+ India achieved the No. 1 position in the ICC Test rankings after winning this series.
** Dhoni captained in only one (second) Test.
