New Delhi: Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh on Wednesday said the lack of planning in the middle-order has hurt India at big-ticket ICC events such as World Cup and Champions Trophy.
“When we won the World Cup (2011), we all had a set position to bat,” says Yuvraj, who won the Player of the Tournament in that edition of the 50-over showpiece. “I felt 2019 World Cup; they didn’t plan it well.”
The 40-year-old former India crickter said the constant chop-and-change approach did not help the team’s cause at the 2019 World Cup.
“They got Vijay Shankar to bat at No. 4 with just 5-7 ODIs, then they replaced him with Rishabh Pant, who had played 4 ODIs,” said Yuvraj, who felt an in-form Ambati Rayadu’s experience would have served India better. “When we played the 2003 World Cup, Mohammed Kaif, (Dinesh) Mongia and I had already played 50-odd ODIs.”
The former middle-order lynchpin says the team has a similar problem even in T20 cricket.
“Our middle-order (batsmen) in T20 bats higher in franchise cricket,” Yuvraj says, emphasising that batting positions should be allocated to the players earmarked for the World Cup. “That is where we lacked in the last T20 World Cup.”
In the second part of his interview on Home of Heroes, Sports18’s newest offering, Yuvraj also says T20 & T10 are the future of cricket.
“Test cricket is dying. People want to watch T20 cricket; people want to play T20 cricket,” said Yuvraj, who feels the money that players make for playing shorter format forces players to rethink their priorities.
“Why would someone play five-day cricket and get five lakh rupees and today play T20 cricket and get 50 lakh? Players who have not made it to international cricket are getting 7-10 crores,” explained Yuvraj.
Yuvraj said that ODI cricket will also struggle to find mind space.
“You watch a T20 game and then watch a 50-over game – it looks like a Test match now. After 20 overs, they are like, ‘There are 30 overs to bat!’,” says Yuvraj. “So, definitely T20 is taking over everything.”
Watch the second part of Yuvraj Singh’s interview on ‘Home of Heroes’ on Sports18 at 1:00 PM on May 7th, 2022
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