There were calls to retire the iconic No.7 jersey as a mark of respect to MS Dhoni’s contribution to Indian cricket.
MS Dhoni and No. 7 go hand in hand. The talismanic keeper-batter has been sporting the iconic No. 7 jersey since his international debut in 2007 and the number has eventually become synonymous with him. Dhoni may have retired from the biggest stage, but the former India skipper remains to be a crucial part of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) set-up.
Widely regarded among the most successful captains to have braced the sport, Dhoni opened up about the significance of the No. 7 jersey but ruled out any superstitious perspective to it. There were calls to retire the jersey digits as a mark of respect to Dhoni’s contribution to Indian cricket. And the 40-year-old Dhoni shared the “simple” reason behind selecting the number, saying his date of birth is emblematic of the digit.
“A lot of people initially thought that 7 is a lucky number for me and all of that. But I chose the number for a very simple reason. I was born on the 7th of July. So it’s the 7th day of the 7th month, that was the reason,” Dhoni told fans during a virtual interaction held by India Cements.
“Rather than getting to all the different things as to what number is a good number and all, I thought I will use my date of birth as the number. Then whenever people kept asking me, I kept adding to the answer. 81 was the year, 8-1 is again 7, 7 is a very neutral number. People actually kept telling me, I started absorbing it and I started telling it to others in the same way,” he further said.