MS Dhoni made India fall in love with T20 cricket. When he went to South Africa for the inaugural World Twenty20, in 2007, he was the new captain of a team that the Indian board did not even want in the tournament - India only entered in return for their bid to host the 2011 World Cup being allowed, despite being late. Three weeks later, India won an agonising final in Johannesburg against Pakistan. The country most suspicious of T20 was suddenly enamoured with it. At the Indian Premier League’s inaugural auction four months later, Dhoni fetched $1.5 million, more than any other player.

He was both cause and effect of India’s infatuation with T20. Dhoni’s rise from the small city of Ranchi, which had seldom produced cricketers of note, encapsulated the democratisation of Indian cricket and the opening up of new opportunities for players outside the traditional power bases of the sport. His strokes - including his trademark helicopter, clunked through midwicket - were impudent. And, with his long hair and penchant for riding a Harley Davidson motorbike, Dhoni seemed to symbolise a new age of Indian brashness.

This was also, of course, expressed through the IPL. Chennai skipper from the IPL’s inaugural season until their suspension after the 2015 season, Dhoni led the side to five IPL finals, including two titles. His side developed an extraordinary capacity to win tight games - a testament to Dhoni's dexterity juggling his bowlers from behind the stumps and, when Chennai chased, how he reliably eviscerated bowling attacks with clinical brutality at the death. And he did it all with an effervescence so great that Dhoni remains probably India’s most popular cricketer.