Yuvraj Singh fires another salvo, says India doesn’t need No.4 batsman

Mumbai: A day after Harbhajan Singh wondered why Suryakumar Yadav is overlooked, his longtime teammate and former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh once again took a dig at the Indian team’s middle-order ordeal, saying they are very strong and don’t need reinforecements.

“Don’t know why he doesn’t get picked for india after scoring runs heavily in domestic cricket @surya_14kumar keep working hard.. your time will come,” Harbhajan tweeted on Sunday after Mumbai Indians batsman Suryakumar smashed a whirlwind 81 runs off 31 balls during Mumbai’s clash against Chhattisgarh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Yuvraj remarked: “Yaar I told you ! They don’t need a no 4 top order is very strong (sic).”

Yuvraj recently ruffled a few feathers by saying in an interview to Aaj Tak that he was not picked for the Indian team despite passing the mandatory Yo-Yo test.

The Player of the Tournament in India’s triumphant World Cup campaign in 2011, Yuvraj was dropped after the 2017 tour of the West Indies as he was going through a lean patch.

Earlier this year, the celebrated southpaw, who also played a crucial role in India winning the inaugural World T20 in 2007, called time on his career.

“Never thought that I would be dropped after being named the Man of the Match in two games out of the 8-9 I played after the Champions Trophy in 2017.

“I got injured and I was told to prepare for the Sri Lanka series. Then suddenly, the Yo-Yo test came into the picture. It was a u-turn in my selection. Suddenly I had to go back and prepare for the Yo-Yo test at the age of 36.

“Even after I cleared the test, I was told to play domestic cricket. They actually thought that I wouldn’t be able to clear the test due to my age. And that it would be easy to decline me afterward… yeah you can say it was an exercise in making excuses,” Yuvraj said.

Yuvraj, who has played 304 ODIs and 58 T20s for India, scoring 8,701 and 1,177 runs, respectively, smashed a 127-ball 150 in a home ODI against England in Cuttack in January 2017 to then play the Champions Trophy after being in and out of the side. In the Champions Trophy, Yuvraj managed 105 runs in four innings at an average of 35.00. He was included in the squad for the West Indies tour after the Champions Trophy, but his poor showing there saw the selectors drop him.

 Published on: Sep 30, 2019 at 19:07 IST

IANS