MS Dhoni super excited! Lauds Rafale induction into Indian Air Force

Bengaluru, September 10: India inducted French-made fighter jets Rafale into its Air Force on Thursday (September 10) and former India cricket team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni lauded the inclusion of these modern war machines, that he said will give a cutting edge to the country's Armed Forces.

"With the Final Induction Ceremony the world's best combat proven 4.5Gen fighter plane gets the world's best fighter pilots. In the hands of our pilots and the mix of different aircrafts with the IAF the potent bird's lethality will only increase.

"Wishing The Glorious 17 Squadron (Golden Arrows) all the very best and for all of us hope the Rafale beats the service record of the Mirage 2000 but Su30MKI remains my fav and the boys get new target to dogfight with and wait for BVR engagement till their upgrade to Super Sukhoi," said Dhoni in his Twitter account.

Dhoni, who had retired from international cricket on August 15 this year, has always been a keen follower of Armed Forces. The Jharkhand man himself has been conferred with an honourary Lt Colonel post with the Territorial Army.

Dhoni had also been part of his regiment and spent some days in Jammu and Kashmir as part of serving the Army. It so happened when Dhoni took a sabbatical from cricket after India's exit from the ICC World Cup 2019 after losing to New Zealand in the semifinals.

Since then Dhoni remained aloof as speculations floated around his future as India cricketer. But Dhoni ended his career with a simple Instagram post that read: "Consider me as retired from 7.29 PM IST." It was a logical call too as the ICC had postponed the T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to be held in Australia in October-November this year, because of the Covid 19 pandemic.

With no international cricket for him to look forward to in 2020, Dhoni decided to move away after an illustrious career. However, he will be seen in action in the upcoming IPL 2020 as the captain of Chennai Super Kings.