Lieutenant Colonel MS Dhoni set to join Army battalion
Former India captain MS Dhoni will join his battalion in Jammu and Kashmir at the end of this month, the Army has confirmed.
Dhoni will be with the 106 Territorial Army battalion (Para) from July 31 to August 15 and will be taking on the duties of patrolling, guard and post duty while staying with the troops, they added.
Dhoni had made himself unavailable for India's tour of the West Indies which is set to start from August 3 in order to serve the Army.
“We would like to clarify three things. MS Dhoni is not retiring from cricket right now. He is taking a two-month sabbatical to serve his paramilitary regiment which he had committed much earlier. We have now intimated his decision to skipper Virat Kohli and chairman of selectors MSK Prasad,” said a senior BCCI official when a lot of retirement speculations were on the run.
During the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, MS Dhoni came under a lot of criticism for his 'lack of intent' in many matches. It was widely expected that he will bring an end to an illustrious international career after India's exit at the semi-final stage but the BCCI clarified that Dhoni is not retiring and would rather help Rishabh Pant during the transition phase.
The Territorial Army had awarded Dhoni the honorary rank of a lieutenant colonel in the parachute regiment on 1st November 2011 along with Abhinav Bindra and Deepak Rao. The 38-year-old Dhoni has been seen in the army uniform on a lot of occasions in the past. He even became a qualified paratrooper after completing five parachute jumps in 2015 in the Agra training camp.
"As requested by the officer and approved by Army Headquarters, he will be performing duties of patrolling among other such activities and would be staying with the troops," Colonel Aman Anand, a spokesperson for the Indian Army, said.