Yuvraj Singh rampages his way towards India comeback with domestic performance in 2015/16
"You will matter when it matters the most", Sachin Tendulkar had told Yuvraj Singh at the 2011 World Cup. Quite true to prophecy, with a tour of Australia and a T20 World Cup being the next assignments for Team India, the champion of hearts and a World Cup triumph is roaring back into contention for India selection.
It has been a little more than two years since Yuvraj last turned out in international colours, having been left out of the 2015 World Cup squad despite protests from large sections of fans. However, with his imperious form in the 2015/16 domestic season, he is forcing the selectors to take a prolonged second look at their discarded legend.
In the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, Yuvraj’s has scored 243 runs at an average of 81 and a strike-rate of 98 in 4 matches for Punjab. He is currently the 5th highest scorer of the league stages, 62 runs short of top scorer Aditya Waghmode of Baroda, who has played one match more.
Yuvraj had skipped the match against Tamil Nadu on 13th December to be at his ‘former’ India teammate Rohit Sharma’s wedding in Mumbai. Despite missing one match, Yuvraj has been the batting spearhead in Punjab’s season, who as a result find themselves comfortably placed at the top of Group A, assured of proceeding to the next round.
As a proof of how majestic Yuvraj has been this season, his 12 sixes is the highest in the tournament, with second placed Sheldon Jackson having hit 9 sixes.
He laid his intentions clear in the first match itself, with a commanding 93 against Mumbai. His efforts failed to bear fruit though, as Punjab slipped to a 5-wicket defeat. In Secunderabad on Tuesday, Yuvraj hit 10 fours and two sixes in a 59-ball 78*, leading his team’s charge to another victory and also a rise to the top of the table.
It had been three days since Yuvraj had turned 34, but during that glorious knock, the wheels of time seemed to have been rolled back to when the 18-year-old had suddenly infused a fresh spark to the Indian middle order in the 2000 ICC Knockout Championships – lording over the Australian bowling attack like few Indian middle order batsmen have ever done.
The missing piece in India’s limited-overs squad
It is precisely that spark in the middle order that India have been lacking in 2015, a year in which they have not won a single ODI series. One of the reasons why India have choked in the 50-over format this year is the much-bemoaned lack of a finisher. This is a trouble that is likely to plague the Indian team in their World Cup campaign on home soil in March next year as well.
Yuvraj’s credentials as a middle order batsman need no introduction, he is one of the most well-loved Indian cricketers for his numerous match winning knocks for the country in later parts of the batting innings. As India’s recent losses to South Africa showed, the issue seems to be scoring runs from the 30th over onwards, and Yuvraj offers the perfect solution.
At number five for India, he has scored 3026 runs at an average close to 40 and a strike-rate of 87.43. Even lower down the order at number six, he has 1799 runs at an average of 36 and a strike-rate of 84.
In a recent interview, with the characteristic casual passion that has defined his game over the years, Yuvraj said that he was trying for an India comeback, and that he wouldn’t mind the finisher’s role.
One last crack against Services
Even in the Ranji Trophy season, Yuvraj has scored runs fluently, scoring 398 runs in 7 appearances at an average of 36 and a strike rate of 62. Punjab have qualified for the knockout stages of the Ranji Trophy as well, and Yuvraj has been expectedly instrumental in their campaign.
He missed a match in the first class season as well, to attend Harbhajan Singh’s wedding.
Yuvraj Singh has nothing left to prove, he goes on personal engagements when the occasion demands it. But every time he walks out to the ground, whatever be the format, he scores heavily.
It can be said that the dashing southpaw has found a new lease of form this season, and maybe this can be pinned down to him being freed of the responsibility to live up to the tag of an international cricketer, a load that he had carried for thirteen years. It is when he throws caution to the wind that he is at his most destructive – Stuart Broad would remember.
How many more runs till the selectors give in to pressure? With the committee set to announce the India squad for the Australia tour on Saturday, 19th December, Yuvraj will have one last crack in the last league match of the 50-over competition against Services.
Like a medieval king willing on their favourite knight to win in a jousting tournament, the whole of the nation will have their eyes on a cricket match in Hyderabad on Friday – a match which will have no real consequence in terms of standings, but which could have a real bearing on India’s fortunes in the coming months.