ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Yuvraj Singh misses training session due to fever
What’s the story?
The Indian team were in for a little scare as Yuvraj Singh missed a two-hour long training session at the Lords Cricket Ground. According to a report in the Mumbai Mirror, the star all-rounder is down with a fever.
Yuvraj was the only member of the squad to miss the optional training session as the rest of the 14 players turned up as usual.
The context
After much deliberation about India’s participation in the tournament due to disputes with the ICC, the BCCI had finally announced a 15-member squad, well past the deadline. Virat Kohli would lead a first-string team boasting the likes of MS Dhoni, Yuvraj among others.
The Indian team had left for England to take part in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy a couple of days back. However, Rohit Sharma and Kedar Jadhav had reportedly not travelled with the team.
The heart of the matter
The Indian team had an optional training session yesterday. Still, 14 of the 15 players showed up to take part in the session. The players played a game of football and followed it up with a light training session, thus rounding up the day’s activity. Then, they headed back to the Grange City Hotel in Cooper’s Row Area in London.
The only player to have missed out was Yuvraj, who had been in a jovial mood when the team boarded the flight to London on Wednesday night. He seems to have caught a slight fever somewhere in between.
The news of Yuvraj missing the training session due to fever has reached the BCCI office in Mumbai. The report adds that there is some activity on that front at the office. However, the team management is of the opinion that the 35-year-old will recover in a day or two, well in time for the start of the tournament.
What’s next?
The Indian team is scheduled to play New Zealand in the first warm-up game tomorrow. Yuvraj is likely to miss that game. However, both the board and the team management are willing to wait out two days and see how things pan out before talking about a replacement.
Author’s take
It does not seem to be too serious at the moment. Also, as we all know, Yuvraj is a fighter and he has previously played through pain and sickness. In all likelihood, he gave the session a miss as a precautionary measure. It is in the big tournaments like this that he is at his best and the fans will hope that he can help the team defend their title.