Dhoni doesn’t need protection, he will protect citizens: Army Chief Bipin Rawat

The Chief of Indian Army, General Bipin Rawat, has said MS Dhoni will be protecting other citizen and the army wouldn’t have to worry about protecting the cricketer. Former Indian skipper and Lieutenant Colonel (Honorary) MS Dhoni has begun his two-month training with Territorial Army unit of the Parachute Regiment (106 Para TA battalion) and he will be taking the duties of patrolling, guard and post duty in Kashmir. 

He will be with the unit, which is in Kashmir as part of Victor Force, from 31 Jul-15 Aug 2019.

General Rawat told NDTV during an exclusive conversation, “I don’t think we will need to protect him, he will protect the citizens and garrison entrusted to his task.”

 “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, General Rawat was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Dhoni, who was conferred with the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Parachute Regiment of the Indian Army in 2011, has skipped India tour of West Indies, for which a squad was announced earlier in the day.

Dhoni became a qualified paratrooper in 2015 after having completed five parachute training jumps from Indian Army aircrafts in the Agra training camp.

Earlier, Indian wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s request to train with the Indian Army was approved by General Bipin Rawat.

BCCI Chief Selector MSK Prasad on Sunday announced Indian squad for West Indies tour and as per speculations one name was missing from the team - MS Dhoni. Speaking about Dhoni’s absence from the squad, Prasad said that the wicket-keeper batsman was unavailable for the selection.