Reasons why Yuvraj Singh hasn't made it big in the Test format

Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh made his Test debut on 16 October 2003 against New Zealand in 2003 at his home ground in Mohali, and played his last Test match last year in December during England’s India tour. He has played a total of 40 Test matches in his career and scored a total of 1900 runs with an average of 33.92, which includes 3 hundreds (all against Pakistan) and 11 fifties. Many would say he is more capable than that seeing his ODI and T20 performances and batting averages. He hasn’t been at his best as regards his test career, and that can be attributed to factors that have nothing to do with his batting ability.

Let’s face it, Yuvraj is made for the faster shorter versions of the game. He is at his best when there is an electric atmosphere around the stadium and the situation demands fast scoring of runs. Most of his best performances till date have come in these versions of the game, be it his heroics in the T20 world cup in 2007 where he hit 6 sixes in an over off Stuart Broad while playing England, or blasted Australia away with a 30-ball 70, or his superb performances in the ODI world cup in 2011 for which he was adjudged player of the tournament. He somehow feels at home when he has to score runs at a fast tempo or take wickets in crunch situations that can swing either way in a matter of minutes. That is probably why he does not favour the test format that much. Even though he has said in the past that playing test cricket is the real thing in cricket, his playing style renders him perfect for the ODI and T20 formats, and that is why he has a default spot in the team for those two formats but makes selectors ponder whether to pick him for the test side.

He has been omitted again and again from the test side. This is because during his playing years, India has had a huge list of names that are specially made for test cricket and the team of 11 is usually made before Yuvraj can be summoned for his services. We have had great test batsmen like Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, and Gambhir who have constituted the upper and middle batting order for India and have better performances to offer than Yuvraj can. Dhoni has almost always been there, he has been captain for quite some time now and keeps wickets too. What all these names do is that they leave no space for Yuvraj to be picked in the side, and this is probably why he has been in and out of the side which has prevented him from establishing a permanent spot for himself in the playing XI.

He has been injured time and again and at times not 100% fit to be part of test matches. When he was diagnosed of lung cancer in 2011, he had to take almost a yearlong break from test cricket owing to the time his treatment and recuperation took away, before he was selected again for playing against England in November 2012. What these breaks have done is that they have forced selectors to pick other players and over time, the test squad gets a balance and combination of players going that needs to be broken in order to incorporate somebody who was out of the side or has not been a regular in the side. As a result, Yuvraj is dropped for tests, and that is precisely why he has played a total of only 40 games since his debut in 2003.

Thus, we can attribute his limited success in the test format to his inconsistent selection which was either because he was not required or was not fit. Other than that, his innate nature that favours limited over cricket is responsible for him not being counted among the Indian test greats.