Captain Cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni is only three jumps away from becoming a qualified paratrooper in the Territorial Army's (TA) 106 Parachute Regiment.
Dhoni, who is an honorary lieutenant colonel in the regiment, successfully completed his second jump from an AN-32 - a Russian-built front line transport/cargo aircraft of the Indian Air Force - and touched down at the Malpura dropping zone near Agra on Thursday morning.
Dhoni was the first among a group of five troopers to jump from a height of 1,250 feet at 6.55am and landed within 65 seconds. Before his group, two paratroopers had jumped to inspect weather conditions and checked the air speed and the direction of flow.
Later, at around 9am when the aircraft started hovering over the dropping zone again, two paratroopers jumped again but drifted way as the wind was blowing fast.
After hovering over the drop zone for around 15 minutes, security team and weather officials cancelled the third jump due to an increase in the airflow (over 223 nautical miles) and the aircraft landed at Kheria air force station.
Some paratroopers were injured after their jumps as air flow made them drift to fields and nearby villages.
Sources said Lt Col Dhoni may carry out two more jumps on Friday as the part of his training at the Indian Air Force's Paratroopers Training School (PTS) in Agra. The ODI skipper has completed two out of five parachute jumps till now.
{{/usCountry}}Sources said Lt Col Dhoni may carry out two more jumps on Friday as the part of his training at the Indian Air Force's Paratroopers Training School (PTS) in Agra. The ODI skipper has completed two out of five parachute jumps till now.
{{/usCountry}}Dhoni, who has been undergoing training at PTS since August 6, has to undertake the jumps from 10,000 feet, including one at night, to be a qualified parajumper.
He was conferred with the honorary rank of Lt Col in the TA in November 2011.