Forget the hyperbole the electronic media anchors created by packaging Yuvraj Singh as the villain of India’s failure to win the World T20, the poking the left-handed batsman received from the social media sites Twitter and Facebook and SMS left one tittering.
Yuvraj must have found some solace to see fellow-cricketers coming out in his support and sympathetically stating that they, too, had off-days in their careers like he had in the final against Sri Lanka at Mirpur. They reminded his critics how unfair their vilification is of the man who helped win India the 2007 inaugural edition of the shortest version of the game and the 50-over World Cup three years ago.
Sachin Tendulkar spoke up for all the sane-minded people to pep up Yuvraj: “Yuvi, one off day cannot undermine your tremendous contribution in many sweet memories over the years. You may be down but you are far from being out.”
From the political class, Omar Abdullah tweeted like a good sportsman: “I bet he’s more disappointed with himself than anyone else is.”
One man could, perhaps, understand Yuvraj’s miserable feeling at this point of time. Chetan Sharma, the former India medium-pacer, similarly had to bear the brunt after he was hit for a match-winning last-ball six by Pakistani stalwart Javed Miandad in one of the desert carnival games in Sharjah.
Chetan confessed in private that even now he is reminded of that six at social gatherings, spoiling his evenings, though he says he tries to laugh it off or ticks them off. It sure rankles and it will for Yuvraj, too.
Chetan’s is a one-off thing whereas in Yuvraj’s case he has to ward off self-doubts. He and his other teammates, including Virat Kohli, know how difficult it was to bat on a pitch where the ball was not coming on to the bat and to the misfortune of the Indians, the Sri Lankan bowlers did their homework, having known each and every batsman.
What must have hurt Yuvraj was that he could not go after spinner Senanayake when he was unable to connect Malinga and Kulasekera’s well-directed yorkers wide of the offstump.
Yuvraj is accused of stalling the momentum and yes, in the context of the match, it appeared to be so. But will any batsman willfully pull his side down? Certainly, not Yuvraj! The only thing he could have done under the circumstances was to throw his wicket away, but then which batsman would do that when he knows he has the ability to turn things around at any moment with his power and timing?
Why only Yuvraj, even Dhoni just didn’t know how to counter the Lankan strategy. Suddenly you realise that there were no boundaries in the last six overs. I wonder if Kohli, Yuvraj and Dhoni could recollect such a helpless batting display in any T20 game?
As Dhoni said, this is not the time to speculate about Yuvraj’s future. Will be he be around a year down the road for the World Cup in the antipodes? He will be, but the only thing to be sure about is his fitness. (IANS)