Indian skipper is inarguably one of India's finest finishers in T20s, but there is one little piece of statistic which 'Captain Cool' would like to rectify during the upcoming ICC World T20
MS Dhoni has batted mainly at the number five and six positions in T20 cricket. Pic/Getty Images
New Delhi: Mahendra Singh Dhoni is inarguably one of India's finest finishers in the shortest format of the game, but there is one little piece of statistic which 'Captain Cool' wouldn't be amused about, and would like to rectify during the ICC World T20 which begins on Sunday.
MS Dhoni has batted mainly at the number five and six positions in T20 cricket. Pic/Getty Images
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Believe it or not, Dhoni is yet to score his maiden half-century in T20 internationals having donned the blue jersey in 43 of the 46 matches that India have played so far. Sounds weird but Dhoni's aggregate of 772 runs is most by any batsman without a single fifty in T20 internationals.
Incidentally, his highest score is 48 not out against Australia in a losing cause at the 'Stadium Australia' in Sydney. During that particular match, Dhoni was batting on 45 after the completion of the penultimate over but to his utter dismay found that Ravichandran Ashwin consumed four of the six deliveries.
Narrow miss
In the remaining two deliveries, he scored three runs to get to 48 not out as India lost by 31 runs. Dhoni has mainly batted at No 5 or 6 (13 times each) in the T20 internationals which effectively meant that on most occasions, only few overs were left.
A testimony to that is Dhoni remained not out on 16 occasions in the 40 innings that he has batted so far. The three games that he had missed out were when his jaded body needed rest. He opted out of the 2010 tour of Zimbabwe where India played two T20s under Suresh Raina's captaincy.
The other T20 game that he missed was during India's tour of West Indies in 2011 when he opted out of the limited overs series (T20s and ODs) having played the World Cup and IPL back-to-back in four months of gruelling cricket.
In the list of most runs without a single half century, Dhoni is followed by South African all-rounder Albie Morkel (521 runs), Gary Wilson (Ireland, 510 runs) and the prolific South African Hashim Amla (413 runs).
McCullum on top
New Zealand's Brendon McCullum with 1959 runs from 64 T20 internationals, is the highest scorer in this format. He is followed by Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardene with 1335 runs to his credit.
Only 13 batsmen so far have scored more than 1000 runs in the T20 internationals but none of the Indians are in that 'Elite List'. Out-of-favour opener Gautam Gambhir is India's highest scorer in the format with 932 runs in 32 matches.
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