India cricketer and Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army MS Dhoni is all set to serve the nation from 31 July to 15 August in Kashmir.
MS Dhoni, who has taken a two-month sabbatical from cricket to serve his unit, is proceeding to 106 Territorial Army Battalion (Para) for being with them for the mentioned period in Kashmir. He’ll be taking duties of patrolling, guard and post duty and will be staying with troops, said ANI alert on Thursday.
38-year-old Dhoni holds the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army unit of the Parachute Regiment (106 Para TA battalion). The honour was accorded to him by the Indian Army in 2011. Dhoni was given this honour along with Abhinav Bindra and Deepak Rao.
In 2015, the Ranchi lad became a qualified paratrooper after having completed five parachute training jumps from Indian Army aircraft at the Agra training camp.
Earlier, the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman had made himself unavailable for the West Indies tour where India will be playing three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches beginning 3 August.
Ever since the culmination of the World Cup in the UK where India lost in the semi-finals to New Zealand, speculations have been rife about Dhoni’s retirement, but the team management has asked him to hang around as they groom Rishabh Pant with an eye on the 2020 World T20 in Australia.
Dhoni has been under the scanner in the recent past for his slow-paced innings and the former India captain was even subjected to wide criticism during the recently concluded World Cup for his slow-paced batting.