‘We should be proud he was born in our country’ – Vijay pays glowing tribute to MS Dhoni

Former Indian opener Murali Vijay has paid heartfelt tribute to legendary cricketer MS Dhoni’s unmatched legacy, calling him a natural and very unique leader whose instinctive decisions changed the course of Indian cricket. Vijay highlighted Dhoni’s fearless mindset, recalling how his bold call to hand the final over of the 2007 T20 World Cup to Joginder Sharma remains one of the most defining moments in India’s cricketing history.

Dhoni, who now features exclusively in the Indian Premier League (IPL), has been retained by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the 2026 season. Vijay, who played eight IPL seasons for CSK, all under Dhoni’s captaincy, enjoyed some of his best years during this period. His standout seasons came in 2010 and 2011, where he crossed the 400-run mark in both campaigns and played a vital role in CSK’s rise as a dominant force in the league.

“Dhoni is natural and very unique. Those personalities you cannot replicate. Anybody cannot come and do what he is doing. The way he has dominated and taken the game, he was a very strong person. The way he launched those sixes, I don’t think anyone else got that range as a right hander. He gave that last over to Joginder and we won it. There may not have been logic as Harbhajan had an over as a senior. But it won us the cup as he did something out of the box. We all should be proud that he was born in our country,” said Vijay on Taruwar Kohli’s YouTube channel.

Over the course of his career, Vijay represented India in 87 international matches across formats, 61 Tests, 17 ODIs, and 9 T20Is. Under Dhoni’s leadership, he played 29 Tests, scoring 1,956 runs at an impressive average of 38.35. Overall, Vijay accumulated 3,982 Test runs in 61 matches, including 12 centuries, at an average of 38.28, with his highest score of 167 coming against Australia in Hyderabad. He also enjoyed a productive IPL career, amassing 2,619 runs in 106 matches at an average of 25.93.

Vijay last featured for India in 2018 during the Perth Test against Australia. He officially announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket in 2023. His international career began in 2008 when he stepped in for Gautam Gambhir in the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Nagpur, marking the start of a memorable journey in Indian cricket.