Is Dhoni the world's greatest finisher?

In 2007, India was in the dumps after we were thrown out of the ODI World Cup in the first round itself. One person who totally changed his game and was at the centre of India's revival both as a batsman and captain was Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

In fact in the last four years, Dhoni has not only been India's most precious ODI batsman, but he's been the world's greatest too. For one, the statistics firmly back him up. He has belted 4510 runs at a superlative average of 55 after India lost to Sri Lanka to be eliminated in the 2007 WC. He has also spent the maximum number of weeks at the top of the ICC ODI batsmen rankings.

Now records are one thing, but to convert that into victories is quite another. That's exactly where Dhoni has scored heavily.

India had a major achievement when they registered the world record of 17 consecutive chases in ODIs, mostly under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. In those 17 chases, Dhoni played a major role and his strike rate was in the stratosphere in those matches.

Even now, when we were down in the dumps in England, Dhoni has scored 340 runs off 285 balls in the last seven matches without England dismissing him even once.

Even in the fifth match, despite a batting collapse, Dhoni's 75 not out off 69 balls saw India put up a very competitive target of 272. That ensured the revenge 5-0 whitewash and Dhoni emerged as the man of the series.

Images: AP/PTI

Coverage: India vs England | Indian Grand Prix