File Pic
Internet Desk: After playing for the nation in the blue shirt for over a decade an half, star all rounder Yuvraj Singh may not be seen donning the jersey.
The Indian team selecters decided to opt out Yuvraj from the upcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka which shows that the selectors are determined to field a young squad for the 2019 World Cup.
However today in a press conference BCCI’s selection committee chief MSK Prasad claimed that Yuvraj has been rested for the ODI series.
“Yuvi is a fighter but I believe going into the 2019 World Cup, it is more to do with his fitness rather than just form. Look, there’s a difference between 20-over fitness and 50-over fitness,” Saba Karim, who was a national selector in the last panel, told PTI today.
“It was our panel, who got Yuvraj back in 2015 for the Australia T20. At that point, we were looking only at the World T20 in India and Yuvraj’s experience. But now it’s different. I believe Manish (Pandey) is a great talent and should be given enough opportunities,” the former India stumper said.
“We have little over one and half years to the World Cup. The core team needs to get 40 matches at least. And Manish has done extremely well as India A captain. And he is perhaps one of the best fielders in current Indian line-up,” Karim observed.
An interesting piece of statistic will help in understanding the practical reason behind the selectors’ call.
When India will go into World Cup in 2019, it will be one of India’s oldest teams in terms of average age playing a marquee event.
Skipper Kohli will be nearly 31, Rohit Sharma will be 32, Shikhar Dhawan 33, Kedar Jadhav 34, Ravichandran Ashwin 32, Ravindra Jadeja 30, Umesh Yadav 31 and last but not the least Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be 38 plus.
From being a precocious U-19 talent thrown into the deep end of the pool by Sourav Ganguly in 2000, Yuvraj’s career has been one of the most eventful ones with various shades all mixed in a palette one calls life.
He has been one of India’s greatest ever limited-overs exponent yet someone, whose failures as a Test cricketer have managed to baffle all and sundry.
He singlehandedly won a World T20 for India in 2007 in South Africa and then played a ‘big role’ in losing the 2014 edition in Bangladesh.
He coughed blood, hung around and won India the 2011 World Cup. He even battled a rare germ cell cancer – a testimony to triumph in life.