The captain of the Indian cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has said that Yuvraj Singh is a very important part of the Indian T20 team and his role becomes even more important when India plays with seven batsmen and four bowlers. Before India’s super eight match against Pakistan on Sunday, many experts were saying that Yuvraj doesn’t deserve a place in the XI and he should be left out of the team. But, Yuvraj’s performance against Pakistan was brilliant. He bowled beautifully and dismissed two key Pakistani batsmen. He also looked agile in the field. He was placed at his favourite point position by Dhoni. He dived on a quite a few occasions and saved some runs for his team in the field.
In the post match press conference, Dhoni said, “If we play with only four bowlers, Yuvraj’s presence in the team is necessary. We have other part time bowlers as well, but, neither of them takes the ball away from the right handers. Yuvraj adds a bit of variety to our bowling line up. He is not a big spinner of the ball, but, he has got a very good arm ball. He had bowled well against Afghanistan and he did that again today. He put us on the driving sheet with those two wickets.”
Dhoni also hailed Virat Kohli who played a match winning knock of 78 runs. Dhoni said, “Virat batted really well. We lost an early wicket and we needed a partnership at that time. Virat and Viru rotated the strike and made sure that the scoreboard kept ticking. That was sensible batting by both of them.”
“Virat is one of those players who rarely throw his wicket away. He knows the value of his wicket and he doesn’t play rash shots too often.”
India will take on South Africa in its third super 8 match on Tuesday at R Premadasa Stadium.