'Dhoni will be protecting citizens, needs no protection': Army Chief Bipin Rawat

Mumbai: Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni will serve the Indian army in Kashmir valley and will undertake the duties of patrolling, guard and post duty for about 15 days, the Indian Army said in a statement on Thursday.

The 38-year-old had made himself unavailable for the West Indies tour to serve his regiment.

While Dhoni is all set to start the service, the chief of Indian Army, General Bipin Rawat, has said that after undergoing his training Dhoni will be protecting other citizen and the army wouldn’t have to worry about protecting the veteran cricketer.

“I don’t think we will need to protect him, he will protect the citizens and garrison entrusted to his task,” General Rawat told NDTV. Dhoni holds the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army unit of the Parachute Regiment (106 Para TA battalion).

"When a citizen of India wants to don the military uniform then he has to also be prepared to fulfil 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.

"I don't think we will need to protect him, he will protect the citizens and garrison entrusted to his task," the Army Chief said.

In 2015, Dhoni became a qualified paratrooper after having completed five parachute training jumps from Indian Army aircraft at the Agra training camp.