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Yuvraj Singh is an Indian legend in the shorter format of the game.
He was a crucial member of India’s 2011 World Cup winning campaign. He scored lots of runs and also picked up wickets to end up as Man of the Tournament for India.
Yuvraj also was the main contributor in India’s 2007 T20 World Cup win and formed a very important part of the Indian middle order for more than a decade.
After the 2011 World Cup, Singh was diagnosed with a non-malignant cancer and the way he came back from that to be part of the Indian team again is an inspirational story.
All of this aside, Singh hasn’t been the same over the last few years. Age has caught up with him and his performances have been inconsistent.
He’s shown flashes of brilliance once in a while, but overall his performances have been disappointing.
Since the World Cup, Yuvraj has been part of 70 limited overs international games for India and has scored just 1482 runs at an average of 26.
The only hundred during that period was against England earlier this year. For a regular middle order batsman, that statistic is pretty damning.
For Kohli, this is a catch 22 situation with a player like Yuvraj, who he might not want to drop him from the team when he has been picked in the squad.
I am not sure if he is part of BCCI’s plan for 2019 World Cup in England, so it begs the question as to why he is being picked in the side. I would understand if India were struggling to find competent middle order batsmen, but again that is not the case.
Yuvraj was part of India’s 2014 T20 World Cup squad and played one of the most unnecessarily painstaking innings in the final, which sucked the momentum completely out of the Indian innings.
He made one crucial knock against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy 2017, but again went missing for the rest of the tournament.
This has been Yuvraj Singh’s problem over the last couple of years. The selectors and BCCI need to make a stand on Yuvraj Singh and make him aware of their plans.
India need to build a team for the 2019 World Cup and they cannot carry a player who isn’t performing up to the mark for some time now.
India have players like Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson, Rishabh Pant and few others waiting in the wings and it would be prudent for the selectors and team management to try one of these players in the middle order.
This is the right time for India to experiment and start building a team for the 2019 World Cup as there are lots of ODI games planned for this year.
The selectors need to make some harsh calls and considering the status Singh, probably need to have a discussion with him. This not only applies to Yuvraj but to M.S. Dhoni as well.
Even though Dhoni hasn’t been in too poor form, India need to rest the great man for a few games to test out some young players.
Yuvraj Singh and M.S. Dhoni are legends of the game and have contributed a lot to the success of the Indian team, but the time has come for them to take a back seat.
This is the only way forward for the team and I hope Virat Kohli and BCCI realise the same.
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