Happy Birthday, Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Indian Captain Turns 33

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has led India against England in England on four occasions prior to the start of the upcoming series. If he leads in all the five Tests, he will establish a new record for leading India in most Tests (nine).Mahendra Singh Dhoni turned 33 on Monday. With the five-Test series against England starting in two days' time at Nottingham, Dhoni is in the cusp of what could be his biggest challenge overseas as skipper. Dhoni was the captain when India lost 4-0 in England in 2011. With a rather inexperienced team at his disposal this time, Dhoni will hope his birthday will bring him better luck (read: runs and wickets). He is also poised to become the Indian skipper to have led in most numbers of Tests in England. ('There Will be Serious Questions if Dhoni loses the Test series')

Dhoni's place as Test skipper has been hotly debated in recent times. With Virat Kohli shaping up to be a 'complete' batsman, is he the heir apparent? There are two schools of thought. One that feels Kohli is too inexperienced to handle captaincy and there is no one else to replace Dhoni. The other group feels that Dhoni is an automatic choice purely because he still remains a tactically shrewd leader. With the 'big' boys like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag gone, Dhoni remains the biggest influence on a young side. (India Beat Derbyshire)

Dhoni has led India against England in England on four occasions prior to the start of the upcoming series. If he leads in all the five Tests, he will establish a new record for leading India in most Tests (nine) against England in England. Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajit Wadekar share the present record of leading India in most Tests against England in England. Both led India in six Tests. (It's Time to Right a Wrong: Ganguly)

Dhoni, who has an aggregate of 220 runs while leading India against England in England need 80 more runs for his 300-run aggregate. If he gets them, Dhoni will then become the fourth Indian captain to score 300-plus runs against England in England. Others are Azharuddin (468), Sourav Ganguly (351) and Vijay Hazare (333) are the others.