Yuvraj Singh
While India is always in the search of a No. 7 batsman who can be a capable bowler, suddenly the worries seem to have shifted its focus somewhere else. It’s all about Yuvraj’s form with the bat and his disinterested attitude in the field. Twenty five days away from the world cup, this doesn’t seem to please the management.
Introduced as a youngster under Ganguly, one would never forget the gutsy 84 he scored against the Aussies playing at a crucial No.3 spot. He developed into a promising young talent involving in popular partnerships with Dravid and Kaif in many crunch games. Later in the Chappel-era he was named by Chappel as the India’s trump-card for World Cup 2007. He doomed himself as one of the finest finishers under Dravid, batting at No.6. In the despondently-charitable performance that India exhibited in the World Cup, Yuvraj’s performance was the only silver-lining.
As Dravid stepped down from captaincy in 2007, Dhoni was made the captain and Yuvraj his deputy. India had then flown with a squad consisting of young men for the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007. One of the most memorable T20 innings was played by Yuvraj in the game against England as he struck six sixes in one over of Stuart Broad. The ease with which he hit those emphasized his ability to strike the cricket ball so cleanly!
This might marked the transition from an eminent finisher to a swashbuckler and more importantly from a consistent Yuvraj to a complacent Yuvraj! The Yuvraj, you see these days is of the second kind. His desire to dive to the left and cut down the fours into ones and twos, take those photography-starved aerial catches, run between the wickets like a famished lion does behind a deer converting ones into twos are perniciously waning. In short, from an invaluable asset he is now becoming a liability to the team.
His attitude has devoured and drained the exuberance inside his system and that explains the lack of harmony between his body and mind, two indispensable things that could mould one into a better person/cricketer. Hitherto he seems to have taken his eyes off the team’s interests and more often than not you see is a pointless anger installed in his face. The vociferously intense celebrations that he carries out after picking up wickets is more out of desperation than out of happiness.
In the pursuit of glorious strokes, Yuvraj sadly has now turned into a chronic stagnant-crease-six hitter as opposed to an agile cricketer that he once was, who could lift the spirits of the team in the middle. His body is no more nimble and that probably defines the contemporary Yuvraj you see, the one whose bowling has started to appear better than batting. Picking up two wickets every game must lace over fluent batting and should not act a cover for his poor performance with the bat. The two wickets might guarantee him a place in the side but is never going to take him to a place where he could be.
Recently he was rated as one of the Top 10 Egos in the field of sports – a grant one wouldn’t want to advertise. For a man whose mentors are the former greats, Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly as he names them, he doesn’t seem to have learned from them what he should have, the calmness and dedication of the former two and the fighting spirit of the latter! Looking too complacent and always wanting to prove someone wrong, he doesn’t seem to carry the maturity and charisma his mentors did.
Had he been by now what he could have been, he would have been a mentor to the likes of Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli etc. While Raina has already taken his spot in the tests, the latter is threatening to hamper his progress in the ODIs, his bowling being the only thing coming to his rescue. A promising player, with extraordinary potential, who seemed to head towards a great career, suddenly seems to head nowhere! Suffice it to say that Yuvraj’s career is facing one of the most insidious tragedies and a tremendous potent cricketer is walking towards sunset.
The ages 28-32 is always considered to be the best in a cricketer’s life as they seem to understand their ‘cans and cants’. Yuvraj, 29, is at the right age to undergo this self assessment and transform his cricket for the better. The ‘SWOT’ analysis would be something I would prescribe if given the opportunity to do so. Form is not the primary area of concern, attitude is!
Tags: Cricket, Cricketer, India, Indian Sports, Sports, Sports India, World Cup, Yuvraj Singh
