MS Dhoni makes himself unavailable for West Indies tour to serve Indian military regiment

After disappointing returns in the ICC World Cup, where along with his batting, his keeping standard dwindled a fair bit, Dhoni was widely reckoned to retire from the sport altogether but like always, he has decided to keep everyone under wraps. However, he has now explained it to the BCCI that he wouldn’t be a part of the Windies tour as he will be spending the next two months with the Parachute Regiment of the Territorial Army on his capacity of Honorary Lieutenant Colonel.

"Dhoni has made himself unavailable for the tour of West Indies as he will be spending two months with his paramilitary regiment," a BCCI official was quoted as saying by PTI.

"We would like to say three things. He 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," the senior official added.

With Dhoni pulling out of the tour, Rishabh Pant is expected to be the first wicketkeeper in all three formats but considering the fact that Wriddhiman Saha is also touring with the India A team, he might become the reserve keeper in the Test team instead of Dinesh Karthik.