“I am much fitter now than I was during the 2011 World Cup,” was Yuvraj Singh’s reply when Firstpost asked him about his physical fitness.
Indian cricket fans will not forget the 2011 World Cup in a hurry. The images of MS Dhoni, eyes still, swirling the bat after the championship-winning six and Sachin Tendulkar being carried around on the shoulders of teammates are ones that will remain etched in memory forever. Amid all that, there was a story that was beginning to unravel – that of Yuvraj Singh’s ailment. The man who was declared player of the tournament was waging a battle for his life.
File picture of Yuvraj Singh. Courtesy PUMA.
A year and a few months later, in September 2012, Yuvraj made his first comeback – ‘an emotional return, had tears when I was fielding’ as he called it - to the Indian team in a T20 against New Zealand in Chennai. That comeback lasted a few months, during which he briefly showed signs of being back to his best.
But it all came to a screeching halt in Bangladesh, when his momentum-sapping 21-ball 11 in the final of the World T20 against Sri Lanka saw India crash to a defeat. There was a feeling that a great career was drawing to a bitter close.
Fast forward nearly two years, and Yuvraj Singh gets another shot at redemption. Having been selected for the T20I squad for India’s tour of Australia – in the build up to the World T20 in India – Yuvraj Singh will don India Blues once again.
“I think it’s a mixed bag of feelings. Disappointed that I am not back for the ODIs but happy that I am back with the T20 squad,” Yuvraj, who was in Kolkata for the TSK 25K run in his role as a Puma athlete, told Firstpost. “I just feel that I should be given a few opportunities to get set in the international arena. That’s all I can ask for. There is not much time before the Australia tour for me to prepare. I have a few more domestic games coming up, so the more I play the better are my chances.”
Yuvraj Singh comes back to the squad in a rich vein of form. After a disappointing IPLfor Delhi Daredevils, a not-so-great Ranji Trophy campaign for Punjab that saw him make 398 runs in 11 innings, Yuvraj has turned it around in the ongoing Vijay Hazare trophy with 341 runs in 5 innings at an average of over 80 and a strike rate of 103.64. He took Punjab to the knockouts with a scintillating 83-ball 98 in a chase of 324 against Services.
These are numbers of a man in good touch.
These are numbers of a man in good touch.
Between his last appearance for India and now, the cult of Yuvraj was always looming around India’s limited overs performances. There was outrage when he was not selected for the 2015 World Cup, the humbling series defeat in Bangladesh saw a social-media clamour to bring him back, and even during the recent South Africa ODI series, Sunil Gavaskar spoke about Yuvraj’s comeback when he made 187 in Ranji Trophy against Gujarat. He said it is disappointing that he is not getting a chance, despite that knock being the only one of substance from the southpaw in Ranji Trophy.
And therein lied the problem. The legion of fans Yuvraj has – something he has rightly earned through what he has achieved on and off the cricket field – wanted him to make a comeback because of that cult status. To them, the name ‘Yuvraj’ was big enough to bring him back. To them, his disappointing IPL form did not matter. To them, the balance of the squad and where Yuvraj would fit in, did not matter. His father’s belligerence in the media against the current Indian set-up did not help his cause either.
His comeback this time, however, is merited not just on good form but the struggles of the Indian T20I squad. Despite the IPL, India have never really managed a good run in the shortest format at the international level lately. Part of the problem, as we saw during South Africa’s recent clean-sweep of Dhoni’s side, is the lack of a balanced batting lineup. With Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma all playing at the top of the order for their respective IPL teams, India have struggled to find a good middle-order hitter. A clean-striker of the ball who can handle the death overs and maybe chip in with a few overs while bowling, too, was evidently missing from this lineup.
Enter Yuvraj. As it turns out the national selectors knew better about the correct time to bring Yuvraj back than his fans. Who would have guessed that?
“Nothing, I just practiced,” Yuvraj said when asked what brought about this change of form. “I did not change my technique in particular. Just that in the T20 format [IPL] there is lesser time to get yourself in, while the 50-over format [of Vijay Hazare Trophy] there is more time. I kept in touch with my teammates, Bhajji, Sachinbhai, and Viru. Sachin told me to keep working hard and they all believed I could make a comeback,” he added.
The other side of the argument in bringing Yuvraj back, of course, the age factor. Wouldn’t India be better off blooding youngsters – someone like Gurkeerat Mann – at that slot and see how he does?
“The squad should always be a mix of experience and youth. That lends balance,” Yuvraj said. “A player doing well should be considered, no matter what his age is. If you see the Australian squad, there are people making their debut after 30. I am not saying we have to follow the Australian model, but if a player is in good form, age should not matter.”
And that is something the selectors, under Sandip Patil, have made very clear in recent past. Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra and now Ashish Nehra have all been given a call up late in their careers – not because they are big names, but because the selectors think they are the right people to do the job for India, on current form.
He might think lady luck maybe part of the reason – “I don’t know! Everybody says that, so there must be,” he told Firstpost on the coincidence of the comeback and his engagement – but make no mistake, this is a call-up to the Indian squad that he has earned through his form. And with a T20 World Cup around the corner, he could not have timed it better.
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