Known to draw eyeballs with literally everything he does, former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is yet again courting headlines with his new hairstyle and his fans simply can't stop gushing over it.
On Tuesday morning, celebrity hairstylist Aalim Hakim took to his Instagram account to share a series of pictures of MS Dhoni and tagged it with a message that read, “amazing opportunity to get associated with Mahendra Singh Dhoni".
He captioned the post as “Yessss!!! It’s our Mahendra Singh Dhoni. It’s an amazing opportunity for any creative person to get associated with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and I’m always grateful that I get this honour to show my craft by styling his hair….We have done some really cool different hairstyles in the past but before the last IPL when everyone was cutting their hair sharp and short... That time Mahi bhai showed me one image of his which was a fanmade image of him with long hair and I just got fascinated with that image and requested him to grow his hair long… We both promised eachother that will not touch his hair and keep growing it and then we will cut & style it.”
In the pictures, MSD could be seen in his new long-haired look, complimenting it with a black t-shirt and a pair of matching black shades.
“I have been a huge fan of Mahi bhai’s long hair. We decided to create an all-new texture and colour for the hair. I really enjoyed creating this effortless hairstyle for Mahi bhai. So here I am sharing some images that I clicked before he went to give a shot for an ad film. Always a pleasure to work with him,” he added.
Soon after the celebrity hairstylist shared the pictures, fans swamped the comment section with red heart and fire emoticons. Actor Aparshakti Khurana wrote, “Wowwww Aaaaalim Bhai! Looks Fab!.” Ranveer Singh dropped a red heart emoticon.
A talismanic wicket-keeper batsman, who went by the nickname 'Captain Cool' while turning out in national colours, Dhoni led India in 332 matches, the most by a captain in international cricket. Of these, he won 178, lost 120, and tied six while 15 ended in no result. His win percentage as a captain is 53.61. These numbers, combined with the trophies he has won, makes him India's most successful captain ever.
In these 332 matches, he scored 11,207 runs in 330 innings at an average of 46.89 and a strike rate of over 76. He scored 11 centuries and 71 fifties as a captain, with the best score of 224. Suffice it to say, the burden of captaincy did not affect MS at all.
His success at the international level spilled over to franchise cricket as well. He represented and led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rising Pune Supergiant (RPG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Dhoni won five IPL titles with CSK in 2010, 2011, 2018, 2021 and 2023. He also won two Champions League T20 titles with CSK in 2010 and 2014.
Despite the immense responsibility as a captain, Dhoni's batting was not affected a bit while playing for his franchises as well. In 250 IPL matches, he has scored 5,082 runs at an average of 38.79 and a strike rate of 135.92. He has scored 24 half-centuries, with the best score of 84*. He is the seventh-highest run-scorer in IPL history.