India’s captain MS Dhoni has justified the decision of not selecting Yuvraj Singh in Indian squad for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
“If you see, after the rule change happened, Yuvi didn’t bowl a lot. We must admit that once the rule change [field restriction] happened, it did affect his bowling although he is a regular with the ball in T20s,” Dhoni said.
Dhoni has always been in favour of the four-fielder theory as a lot of his part-time bowlers including the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag became far less effective in changed circumstances.
“In the pre-field restriction days, Viru paaji, Sachin Paaji and Yuvi used to bowl a lot and we depended on them. But they were all part-timers and on good batting tracks, they would find it difficult to bowl well. Like Raina is a good option if there is some help from the wicket. Also, he bowls a good line to the left-handers. I felt I needed him during the Ireland game. Like Shikhar [Dhawan] and Rohit [Sharma] are also part-timers but I can only use them when conditions are conducive,” said Dhoni.
Yuvraj Singh played an instrumental role in India’s 2011 World Cup triumph and the decision of not selecting him in Indian squad for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 was criticised by many cricket pundits, former cricketers and fans. But Dhoni justified this decision by saying Raina has taken Yuvraj’s place in the batting line-up.
“Now Raina bats at No 5 which is a very key number in terms of context of the game. So it will be difficult to compare, Yuvi and Raina as the batting Nos were not similar,” Dhoni explained.
Dhoni also said that the all-rounders have not got a lot of chance during the 2015 World Cup.
“The all-rounders have not got a lot of chance during this World Cup. If you compare with lot of all-rounders [Yuvraj, Dwayne Bravo], who played key role during last World Cup, are not playing this time,” said Dhoni.
