How Dhoni's backing of Jadeja led to Yuvraj's ouster
Former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh recently commented that he had got more support from former captain Sourav Ganguly than subsequent skippers MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. In that context, Sportskeeda spoke to a few insiders from the cricketing fraternity to find out the truth.
Was the middle-order batsman, who played a key role in India winning two World Cup titles (T20 World Cup and ODI World Cup), really given a raw deal by Dhoni and Kohli?
It has been reliably learnt that after the 2011 World Cup triumph, Yuvraj wanted to bowl regularly in the shorter formats of the game. However, Dhoni was keen on promoting Ravindra Jadeja who was a bowling all-rounder, which kept Yuvraj away from bowling duties.
That, supposedly, was the starting point of the differences between Yuvraj and Dhoni. Yuvraj had even spoken about the issue with then India coach Duncan Fletcher, but the Zimbabwean couldn’t do much to bring about a compromise.
Instead, Fletcher told Dhoni about Yuvraj’s grouse, which only added fuel to the raging fire. From there on Dhoni started ignoring Yuvraj completely, according to our sources.
That was also the time when Yuvraj was diagnosed with cancer, and so had to be away from the team for a while. By the time he returned, Dhoni had made it clear who he wanted in the squad for the 2015 World Cup. He gradually sidelined senior cricketers like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, thus leaving Yuvraj's chances in the cold too.
A source close to Yuvraj said Dhoni’s biggest bone of contention with these senior cricketers was that they complained a lot about his leadership style. Dhoni wanted to operate smoothly without anyone questioning his decisions, and so he wanted only those players in the team who could relate to him.
This was in stark contrast to the way Ganguly backed the proven performers in his team. Our sources tell us that the selectors once wanted to drop Yuvraj, but then-captain Ganguly vetoed the idea vehemently. The current BCCI boss reportedly turned his back on the selectors as a mark of displeasure, and refused to take further part in the meeting until Yuvraj's name was added to the squad.
Yuvraj found support in Virat Kohli
After being left out of the 2013 Champions Trophy, Yuvraj found it hard to cement his place in the side. He was under a lot of pressure, and the lack of support from the team management only made things tougher for him.
However, he did have the backing of Virat Kohli. Thanks to the current Indian captain, Yuvraj was signed up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping Rs. 14 crore ahead of the 2014 IPL season. That said, his stint with RCB wasn’t great as he didn't get too many chances to bat in the top four.
Yuvraj was eventually forced out of RCB, before being signed up by the Delhi franchise. In the midst of all this he kept playing domestic cricket, and so was quite heart-broken when he was ignored for the 2015 World Cup squad.
Yuvraj kept fighting, and he made his way up again through a string of convincing performances. But age soon caught up to him, and this time Kohli didn't help either.
After the 2017 Champions Trophy loss to Pakistan, Yuvraj was in the team for another series and was told to work on his fitness - which he did. But none of the selectors were keen to see Yuvraj making a comeback because Kohli didn’t want him in the team, and that was that.