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Yuvraj Singh - A destructive player in limited overs Cricket

Yuvraj is still not up there to be counted among the great. Next few years should settle this debate.
 
It irks me when people talk about players like Younus Khan and Shoaib Malik being average one-day batsmen when their averages of about 32-33 are up there with Jayasuriya, Jayawardene, Stephen Fleming, etc.

There are other factors involved with all of those players you compare to YK.

YK is an average ODI batsman. An average of 32 at a s/r of 75 is just that - average.

You can't compare that to for instance Jayasuriya's similar average, because Jayasuriya has a s/r in the 90s. He's also hit 28 ODI tons and was one of the most dangerous ODI players in his time. You can't say any of that for YK.

Malik was a better ODI batsman than YK, btw - he had a better average, better s/r and more 100s. He was a good ODI batsman imo, as opposed to an "average" odi batsman like YK.

PS - that 10% difference in averages that you mention is actually a lot (eg., when you compared say 37 average to 41 average or a 37 average to a 33 average or if you go further such as in test cricket, a 50 average to a 45 average).
 
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Many posts have talked about how poor Yuvi's average is outside the subcontinent and hence why he is a FTB.

Let's look at the averages of some players away from the subcontinent

Inzamam- 30 vs a career average of 39
Jayawardene - 29 vs a career average of 33
Saeed Anwar- 32 vs a career average of 39
Aravinda Desilva- 28 vs a career average of 35

Would you call any of these 4 as FTBs?

On topic, Yuvraj's career would always be about "What could have been". He could have easily have scored 10k+ ODI runs by now and a lot many test runs and test match 100s if he had got his priorities right. Thanksfully he has now realised what he has lost all these years and looks to be better focussed on his game.

With a good 5-6 years of cricket ahead of him, he surely has it in to end up as one of the best ODI batsmen. However, I would much rather want to see him succeed as a test match batsman. If he does that, the transition period in Indian cricket wil not be as painful once the greats walk away.
 
Yuvraj Singh doesnt do justice to his talent he is way better than people think he is, the talent is abundant, big match player as seen in the WC, my favorite Indian player dhoni & Yuvraj two gems of Indian cricket

well said :19:
 
ODI great he can still become. Remember Michael Beven !

And there are quite a few test greats who failed in ODIs. Remember Justin Langer!
So its not like you can't be called a great if you only do good in ODIs. You need to have the goods to exceed at anything.

Similarly in 10 years from now, there will be a few ^^T20 GREATS^^
They wont be any lesser, no matter how hard Michael Holding cries

Pretty sure if you ask most cricket experts who's "greater" out of Bevan and Langer, they would all say Langer. Yes Bevan was excellent in ODIs but his problems with the short ball in tests are always mentioned. Success in test cricket holds much more weight, and this is the first i've heard of Langer's failures in ODIs, simply because it doesn't really mean anything when compared to his test record.

You might be right about there being T20 "greats" in ten years time, but to most cricket followers it won't mean anything. Pollard can slog as much as he wants in T20s, but unless and until he handles himself in test matches, he won't be put in the same category as Bradman, Tendulkar etc.

According to that logic, Afridi isnt great in your eyes ? Considering he has been equally bad if not worse than Yuvi in Tests.


Afridi is not a great in my eyes. Far from it. It's just my opinion, but success in test cricket is the benchmark for becoming a great.
 
On topic, Yuvraj's career would always be about "What could have been". He could have easily have scored 10k+ ODI runs by now and a lot many test runs and test match 100s if he had got his priorities right. Thanksfully he has now realised what he has lost all these years and looks to be better focussed on his game.

It is not that bad either. If you look at his record over the years (read as year, avg, SR):

2000 21.7 91.2
2001 23.8 76.2
2002 36.6 96.0
2003 31.6 76.7
2004 30.0 90.7
2005 41.9 80.4
2006 53.1 88.3
2007 45.9 89.4
2008 38.8 100.2
2009 39.2 95.9
2010 31.7 70.0
2011 50.3 81.9

The second half of his career has been awesome (especially for someone who bats at No 5/6) ....but for that period in 2010.

Him ending up as a great / very good ODI batsman will depend on whether he is able to sustain this second wind that he has got in 2011 as well as his ability to improve on his record outside the subcontinent. Even on the latter, it is not that he does not have the ability - his record on the 2004 tour to Australia is very good. He just needs to put together such performances more regularly.
 
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He is good no doubt, also these days bowling really well. I think in next WC he would be India most important batsman.
 
Yuvi is a key match winner for India, but hes nowhere near a great batsmen.

Hes probably Indias 4th best batsmen in current ODI team after Dhoni, sachin and sehwag.
 
To answer the question in the thread title simply...YES.
Enough reasons given in the OP and in this thread.
 
Yuvi is a key match winner for India, but hes nowhere near a great batsmen.

Hes probably Indias 4th best batsmen in current ODI team after Dhoni, sachin and sehwag.

But these are all great batsman in both tests and odis, so Yuvraj can still be great no?
 
But these are all great batsman in both tests and odis, so Yuvraj can still be great no?

Sachin is great and world class in both forms off the game.

Sehwag is a world class test batsmen and good ODI batsmen. (Not Great)

Dhoni is a good batsmen in both form of the game (Not great)

Yes Yuvraj could become a even better player once he improves his batting in more testing conditions.
 
If he can curb his Punjabiness and concentrate on cricket like he probably did in the WC, I will respect him. :)

Age - 29

ODI runs- 8000+ already

Standing among greatest run scorers- 22nd, will possibly get a lot higher in future as half the players ahead are retired already and remaining are about to retire while he has a lot of time left

Strike rate - 3rd best among top 22, only behind Jayasuriya and Gilchrist

MOM awards - 25, 13th in the overall list already. A serious match winner

High points- Engine behind India's two greatest triumphs of the 21st century- The 2007 T20 world cup and 2011 50 over World Cup
 
Thanks Mods for listening to me and changing the title, great stuff. As helpful as ever
 
'I think these will be my best years'

If natural justice had anything to do with cricket, Yuvraj Singh would have been in the West Indies. Strapping on his pads, waiting to get out and continue batting in early April vintage. Not sitting in his Delhi home, watching India's bench-strength tackle West Indies, pondering doctors' reports and the most inexplicable months of his life.

Natural justice is on vacation and so India's most emphatic batsman at the World Cup cannot play in the team's first one-day series as world champions. If MS Dhoni's six off Nuwan Kulasekara gave an Indian generation its signature shot, the sight of its buddy next door-turned-field marshal at the other end was most fitting. Yuvraj's twenties - growing pains, coming of age et al - were lived under India's affectionate yet confused public gaze. No wonder that night millions both celebrated and bawled.

The World Cup, though, has been swiftly packed into record books, archival footage and individual memory. The team had no collective celebration, no open-top bus ride through one joyous city (how Kolkata would have welcomed them), and now the steady heartbeat of India's Cup and the event's Player of the Tournament, is on the fringe, in limbo.

Yet Yuvraj's faith stays rooted because of what has just gone past. "No one can take the World Cup away from me," he said, speaking to ESPNcricinfo at length during the IPL. "It is very much in me. It was a big high and the IPL a sort of disappointing low. It was unfortunate that we didn't have much time after the World Cup, but it wasn't that we weren't aware of it. That's just the way a cricketer's life goes these days."

His own cricket has gone through hairpin bends at high speeds over the last year, and Yuvraj should be walking around dizzy. Had he toured the West Indies he would have been the batting leader, with an excellent chance to set himself up for a return to the Test line-up. His current concerns are now around a lung infection that set off bouts of coughing in the last week of May. The juicy rumour that he actually pulled out of the tour because he didn't want to play under Suresh Raina's captaincy has not left him amused either. Yuvraj's only response has been in his syndicated newspaper column, taking personal affront at the idea: "Do I need to tell everyone that I play for India and not for any captain or captaincy? Haven't I played under MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir before?" No and yes, of course.

Missing out in the West Indies plagues him because he had done enough to climb out of a professional trough. The World Cup, the Indian team's mental-conditioning expert, Paddy Upton, said, "was set up to be a defining period in Yuvi's career". It was, and he came through in deed and conduct, the perfect bridge between two generations. Captaincy ambitions or not, at this point in Yuvraj's career, he is not interested in sulking on the sidelines because he can see well into the distance.

The thirties lie ahead of him and he has been planning. Yuvraj travelled through the IPL with a personal trainer, Varun Shivdasani, to maintain his fitness for the many series ahead. Before the lung infection knocked him sideways, he felt at his fittest ever and wanted to hold on to it. He discusses the benefits of protein intake on recovery, and his favourite Caesar is neither Julius nor a neighbourhood dog, but the salad. Time can shrink in cricket and Yuvraj is aware of it. "The only thing now is to concentrate on whatever Test cricket is left and just to excel in that," he said. "I'm 29, I still have a lot of years to go, and I think these will be my best years."

Sanjay Manjrekar calls Yuvraj "one of the all-time greats in 50-overs cricket". To many younger than Yuvraj, that is a most desirable benchmark. Straight off, class of 2000 graduate Yuvraj shakes his head. "I am very far away from greatness." His definitions are different. "Tell me," he asks, "who remembers a one-day cricketer today? Why do people remember Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar? Why is Gavaskar on a different stage? It is only because he has 34 Test hundreds. Why do we call Viv Richards, Sir Viv? Great one-day innings, sure, but also 24 Test hundreds. Why will people remember Rahul Dravid? Because of his Test record." ( well said UV :14:)

He could live off his World Cup "Player of the Tournament" tag for the rest of his life, but Yuvraj's sights are elsewhere. He has grown up around India's greatest batting line-up and knows it. "Greatness to me is two things," he says in his lumbering drawl, which often disguises a more contemplative self. "One is a cricketer who is always considered a team player and the other is someone who has scored everywhere in the world."

In Tests, of course. "Veeru to me is a great player. He's a legend because he has scored everywhere, South Africa, Australia, England, Pakistan. Big hundreds - for me that is greatness. (AGAIN :19: )

"VVS Laxman is great - he may not have 20 Test hundreds, he has about 16-17, but his 80s and his 90s, have been at times when India needed him the most. He has been the crunch man for India in Test matches, and a great team man - a great person."

He scales his own ambitions in the Test game against his batting spot. "I'm not looking towards greatness, because, say, like getting to 20-25 Test hundreds, would be a huge target for me as a middle-order batsman. Whatever Test cricket I play, I just want to do well. I have always looked towards winning Test matches for India consistently."


He stops to give proper credit, "Mostly bowlers win Test matches, but if I can contribute towards winning matches for India, like the game in Chennai..." his voice trails off. Chennai was more than three years ago, but he considers himself a stronger and more renewed cricketer now than he was then. "If I could just get to 70-80 Test matches so I don't have any regrets when I retire, ki yaar maine yeh cricket nahin kheli [that I didn't play that kind of cricket]."
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The past year has been both a trial and an education. "After the 2010 IPL, I lost it a bit because people started accusing me of throwing matches, which was really disturbing. I had put on, like, three to four kilos and people were talking like I had put on 300 kilos."

The scales will prove Yuvraj's lightness but he has always carried it in his manner. Behind the sunglasses and the game face, it just doesn't show much. He may not win elocution contests, but communicate he can, to all kinds of people, across every kind of issue. If a cause or a comrade has to be defended, Yvuraj rolls up metaphorical sleeves and wades in. If an uncomfortable question has to be answered, he will raise an eyebrow, frown and launch his counter. He can both engage with and tolerate an omnipresent media, ticking them off or joshing with them as needed. He was astonished when the scrum gave him a round of applause after the World Cup quarter-final. "This is a special moment for me, guys." After the final, he walked into the media room shouting, "Congratulations to all of you" in Hindi and shaking hands.

When asked where he thinks he can go with his previously uncelebrated slow-slow bowling skill, he grins. "Not far," he says and bursts into deep-throated laughter. "Trust me." In the World Cup, it did enough. Yuvraj ended up India's No. 2 wicket-taker, after Zaheer Khan, having taken advice from selector and former India legspinner Narendra Hirwani.

As the Cup went into boilover mode, in the run-up to the semi-final, one afternoon he talked life with Shoaib Akhtar over lunch in Mohali. The Pakistani told him that the bad times could sometimes actually be good. "Shoaib said you remember the good times and you want them back, so you work harder. You try and become a better person to get those times back... that's the kind of year I'd had." What it left behind surprised him. "I had become mentally very strong. I became very patient... I knew I wasn't going to barge into the Test side, score a triple-hundred or a double-hundred. I'm not going to score 150 in one-day cricket... A lot of people had stopped believing in me, but I had belief in myself."

It is why the World Cup became, as Upton said, his defining moment, when he endured an off-field mental and physical churn: sleepless nights, throwing up. Zaheer Khan introduced him to the benefits of iPad gaming. It was movies in hotel rooms, headphones on in public, all the while having people say to the team, "jeetoge, jeetna hai, jeetna hai India ko" [you will win, you have to win, India has to win]. What was left unsaid was something else. "'If you don't win we will put up your photos, set it on fire and throw shoes at it.' No one said it but at the back of the mind sometimes it sounded like that," he laughs. It was not easy.

On the field Yuvraj radiated assurance, dead sure even after defeat in Nagpur that he would take the team to the final. For a year he had dreamt of hitting the winning runs against Australia in the final, the K'Naan song Wavin' Flag playing in his head. It is why he celebrated like he did in Motera, sliding to his knees and roaring like a beast uncaged. It was Australia, the flags were waving, and while it wasn't the World Cup final, the game changed India's stride. "I had wanted to win that match desperately." Bollywood director Farhan Akhtar told Yuvraj that his face that night reminded him of a celebrating Muhammad Ali. Probably from that 1965 picture, standing over Sonny Liston.

Yuvraj said he had played the Cup for Sachin Tendulkar, but the trophy became a son's gift to his father. Yograj Singh, the other Chandigarh allrounder left behind in Kapil Dev's wake, looked at pictures of 1983 and "always wished he had been there". After the final, when Yograj spoke to his son, he said, "I am proud to have a son like you. You have given me everything."

Yet it is all suddenly cotton-woolled, because India are now the wicket everyone wants. Over the next eight months they must travel far and boldly to stay right where they are - Test No. 1 and one-day leaders in all but the rankings. "There's more responsibility on us to maintain that. If we can do consistently in the West Indies and England, then there's no reason we can't do well in Australia. We're playing good cricket. I'm sure we have what it takes to get to the next level."

In the last five years, series have been won in the West Indies and England, but Australia remains the holy grail, the monkey on the back, the so-far invincible opposition.

Yuvraj Singh was the man who thought about and brought about an end to Australia's 12-year unbeaten World Cup run. With that, his one-day game scaled a dizzy peak. All he sees from there now is an even higher summit.

Sharda Ugra is senior editor at ESPNcricinfo
RSS Feeds: Sharda Ugra

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
 
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Yuvraj has improved a lot in recent years. Yes no doubt one of the best in India in ODI. As far as World stage is concerned he has not done that badly but as also said in the above posts. He needs to prove himself in alien conditions to emerge as a world beater.
 
He has done quite well abroad for positions he comes to bat at
 
he was restrained during wc 2011. wasnt doing that swearing like mad schtick like he did during wc 2007 t20.
maybe attitude has improved. i hope success doesnt go to his head. we need him in the future after sachin, laxman, dravid, etc. are gone.
hard to believe he is just 29. he has been around since like forever.
 
Yes approaching the 30s now, Yuvi has to spend good 6-7 years as a senior :inti
 
BUMP

I really believe that Yuvraj should be given a good run in the test side now. The legends don't have much time left and the youngsters don't seem to be prepared for test cricket. Can't leave these guys on their own once the big players retire. Gambhir, Yuvraj have got a very crucial role to play now in next 5 years.
UV is an experienced player now, top ODI cricketer and he does''t have many technical issues.
I think he is gonna do good for us.

I vote for permanent membership now ! The time has come
 
Yuvraj should be a permanent no doubt. He is better than Kohli + Raina combined. He also outbowled Bhajji the main spinner in the world cup, his spin bowling can be handy in Test, he has a good record against Pietersen, Yuvraj vs Pietersen will be fun.
 
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^No doubt about that

Definitely better than this T20 generation
 
come on UV .... :)

he'll do well against England at least ...he give his best shot against them..come on UV ...:D:D
 
The YUVI deserves the recall and I would give him another shot at Test cricket. He has the talent.

But if I were Indian selector, one more show of mental weakness in Test means the YUVI stays LO player for the rest of his career. He has had enough chances, earned one more from the WC.
 
Yuvraj never had in himself to be a Test Cricketer . Pujara & Kohli are much better future prospects.
 
so do you think that only you watch cricket and hence showing scorecards of some matches in the sub-continent.

Can you tell me his scores in the series against Australia in 2008 ?
 
so do you think that only you watch cricket and hence showing scorecards of some matches in the sub-continent.

Can you tell me his scores in the series against Australia in 2008 ?

So you watch so much cricket that you have seen the whole Australia 2008 series? That is so amazing.

So anyone who did not score in that series is not good? Is that how it works for you?
 
so do you think that only you watch cricket and hence showing scorecards of some matches in the sub-continent.

Can you tell me his scores in the series against Australia in 2008 ?

Your point was that UV isn't a test player and that Pujara/Kohli are better.
UV beats them in all departments man

I think you missed the thing about all three knocks. Forget the tracks, see the situations in which he scored them and in what style. Saved us in the Lahore test of 2004, then the Karachi ton when our batting choked against Asif/Akhtar, and the 85 while chasing 380 on a 5th day track
 
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why comparing his test scores? it is said about odis right? he is among the finest yes. enormously gifted. but very temperamental. needs a bit of babysitting to do well.
we all saw what he can do in wc 2011. glad to see him realise his potential.
he has atleast 5-6 years of good cricket in him provided he doesnt get injured.
 
I predicted that he wouldnt play well, and he should've been out. He also played horribly against Broad and Anderson most of the time while Dravid was shielding him from strike.
 
Certainly making the drop catch count. Imagine had he gone then I think with Dhoni too in horrible form we might have conceded England a lead. Just the luck he needed.
 
catches win matches. He was looking absolutely clueless the first 6-7 balls and had KP caught him his confidence would be nil, but you gotta take what you got
 
Certainly making the drop catch count. Imagine had he gone then I think with Dhoni too in horrible form we might have conceded England a lead. Just the luck he needed.

If he keeps batting, he will bat Eng out of the game.... and also buy KP a drink :)
 
Currently stands at 22nd position in list of top run getters in ODIS with just over 8000 runs.

Averaging respectable 37.62 but more importantly out of 21 people ahead of him in the list only 2 are having a better strike rate. Gilchrist and Jayasuriya. He scores at an SR of 88.

Its time people start rating this guy seriously, he has been one of the best ODI batsmen of the decade and at the end of his career will be one of the best ever most probably.
He will be over taking people like Gibbs, Waugh, Haynes, Attapattu, Chanderpaul, Anwar, De Silva, Azharudin, Yousuf, Gilchrist, Lara, Dravid and probably more in future and will be among 5 greatest run scorers on ODIs when he retires or even higher

no,no,no,no,no,no,no
 
Though he got lucky initially when his catch was dropped. Later on settled in and scored a valuable knock considering the state of the game. This innings has given him a lease of life at least for next test...
 
I didn't expect him to do well after such a long break. He will have to be on his toes. You can get away with loose technique in ODI cricket but that wont work in tests. Hope he puts in the required effort
 
Was checking the record of a few players in ICC tourneys, Yuvraj has done very well in those. He is up there with even Sachin as far as record in ICC tournaments is concerned.

And if you combine ODIs and T20s he is our best ever player in ICC TOURNAMENTS !

Averages 46 in ICC world cups/ champions trophies with the bat striking at 88 per 100 balls and 27 with the ball
31 with the bat in ICC T20s striking at 150 per 100 balls

Was our top performer in both the world cups we have won in his era.
 

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2011 world cup man of the tournament dropped from ODI team :facepalm:

I am in mood to beat some :butt
 
Why does he keep getting sick , UV needs some shittar parade
 
Spending too much time with women is he again :facepalm:

They kill your career :malik
 
Physically he is totally out of shape. Guess hasn't recovered from the world cup hangover yet. Hope he doesn't take his place for granted again, too many young guys waiting in the wings.

He is way too talented and useful for us in ODI's to be dropped again.
 
Yuvraj Singh battling non-malignant tumour

Yuvraj Singh, the India allrounder, had asked the BCCI not to consider him for selection for the ODI series against West Indies because he has been recovering from what his family has called an "illness that threatened his career," caused by an "abnormal tumour" on his lung.

According to a statement released by his mother, Shabnam Singh, Yuvraj had been troubled by bouts of coughing and vomitting during the 2011 World Cup but had ignored the problem during the tournament, "assuming it was due to stress."

When the problem persisted after the World Cup, Yuvraj sought medical advice and tests revealed "a golf-ball sized" growth on his left lung, the statement said. Initial reports had suggested that Yuvraj "had what in medical terms is called an abnormal tumor called lymphoma. The danger was, we were told, that it could be malignant."

Early medical treatment and therapy led to Yuvraj feeling better than he did during the World Cup and he "was eager to resume his India duties." However, after returning from the tour of England due to a finger injury sustained during the Nottingham Test, Yuvraj went through several rounds of tests, scans and a recent biopsy in order to ascertain the exact nature of the tumour. "Further reports have indicated that the tumour is non-malignant and non-threatening and can be treated through proper medication and therapy. In medical terms, Yuvraj is now in a much better state and on his way to a full recovery."

Yuvraj had informed the BCCI president N Srinivasan of the findings and wanted to regain his fitness. It was why he had "sought some more time ... and asked not to be considered for selection in the one-dayers versus West Indies."

In the statement Yuvraj's mother said he "did not want to rush things, wants to be 100% fit before resuming his cricket for India and has started working hard on both his fitness and his cricket. He is already preparing himself to play the one-day series in Australia."

Yuvraj was not included in the Test squad for the tour of Australia.

http://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/news/item/181481-yuvraj-singh-battling-non-malignant-tumour
 
Wow! Doesnt sound good at all! Hope he gets better soon!
 
^ It's not a dangerous type of tumour. He's on his way to recovery.

But still not a good news to hear. He has been suffering from it for some time, we just didn't know
 
Same, hope he recovers fully soon. This doesn't sound good at all.
 
I don't like him but yeah hope he doesn't die; get well soon :wahab
 
Its a non malignant tumour, so not a serious or life threatening.

Needs 2-3 months to recover though. Wasn't gonna be selected for test series anyway.
 
Bump. :)


Yuvraj stands between India and the World Cup. He's the connecting link, if he fires we will have big chances of lifting the trophy. But if he fails in the middle order, we can forget about the cup.
 
Thanks freelance.

To the person who posted about being upset about Wahab Riaz's absence in the upcoming match (a mod deleted the post by accident and I cant remember your name) here's to you;

Don;t be disheartened. And don't judge him on that performance. Let me tell you why.

When pakistan were naming the squad to face india this year for the asia cup, they decided to bring Wahab in because of his excellent performance v India in the WC.

And lets look at what he did in the asia cup; 4 overs, 50 runs, 0 wickets at economy of 12.50. He turned out to be the least effective and most costly bowler from both teams. From looking at the stats, he played a big part in our loss. Had he bowled without conceding too many runs, the match could have been much closer than it was.

Have a look for yourself, at the stand out bowler (for the wrong reasons) Wahab Riaz;

http://www.espncricinfo.com/asia-cup-2012/engine/current/match/535798.html
 
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