It was a few days ago when the news came out that MS Dhoni, the legendary Indian cricketer has made himself unavailable for the upcoming tour of the West Indies, which starts next month.
The announcement was made amidst the speculations of his retirement, which were making rounds ever since India’s heartbreaking exit from the Semi-finals in World Cup 2019. Rishabh Pant will be filling his boots as the primary wicketkeeper in all formats during the tour.
Meanwhile, MS Dhoni will be serving his nation, this time as army personnel. MS Dhoni, who is an Honorary Lieutenant Colonel in the Parachute Regiment of the Territorial Army is all set to serve his unit from July 31 to August 15.
The veteran will be with the unit in the Kashmir Valley as a part of the Victor Force and will be staying with the troops. Soon, India’s most loved MS Dhoni will be seen patrolling guard and post duty.
However, ever since MS Dhoni announced that he will be joining his Batallion, there were concerns over MS Dhoni’s security as he is a civilian. Talking about the same, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat feels that Dhoni doesn’t need security but he will be protecting a lot of other people. He said:
“I don’t think we will need to protect him, he will protect the citizens and garrison entrusted to his task.”
He added:
“When a citizen of India wants to don the military uniform then he has to also be prepared to fulfill the task for which the uniform has been assigned to him. MS Dhoni has carried out his basic training and we know that he will be able to accomplish the task.”
“In fact, he will be protecting a lot of other people because he will now be performing with the 106 Territorial Army battalion (Para). It is a very good battalion and they have been performing line of communication duties, static protection and he will be a part of it,” he added.
MS Dhoni was accorded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel by the Indian army in the year 2011. MS Dhoni is in the Territorial Army unit of the Parachute Regiment (106 Para TA battalion).
It was in the year 2015 when MS Dhoni became a qualified paratrooper after having completed five parachute training jumps from Indian Army aircraft at the Agra training camp.
