Dav Whatmore, the former director of India’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) and currently, a Kolkata http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Knight-c71599 Riders (KKR) coach is a known figure in the cricket coaching world. And when he talks, people do listen. In a recent interview to a website, he expressed his disappointment over the selection of Yuvraj Singh in the Test squad against Sri Lanka.
Whatmore said that he felt that Cheteswar Pujara, who is going through a great run of form should have been included in the Test team, in place of Yuvraj.
Pujara had only recently hit three triple centuries in a span of one month and was tipped to be the future http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid of India.
Although he has not got much exposure to the first class cricket, his average of 56.00 runs in 45 matches cannot be ignored.
On the other hand, Yuvraj Singh made an entry to the International arena back in 2000. Since then he has been http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750’s star performer in fifty and twenty over cricket. Yuvraj has manged to sail his team through many crucial situations with his fearless, and sometimes, audacious batting style. His ability to keep cool in pressure situations makes him an ideal middle order batsman. In a 2007 T20 World Cup match he hit six sixes in an over against England, a feat that had never been performed in an international cricket match between two Test cricket countries.
Yuvraj mostly occupies the cover position while fielding and has taking some of the match winning catches for the India, his agility on the ground is remarkable. He was also the vice-captain of Indian One Day International team from late-2007 to late-2008
However, Yuvraj’s Test cricket career has not been very impressive. He made his debut in Test cricket in 2003, playing in place of injured Sourav Ganguly. Since then he has made several appearances in the playing eleven, but has not been able to manage to create to a permanent spot for himself in the team.
His average in the 33 Tests is 35.78 runs. Yuvraj has himself accepted that he had failed to perform consistently in Test cricket and during the peak of his career he had to compete with Sourav Ganguly and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/VVS-Laxman-c2772 to get a slot in the Test team.
For some time, Yuvraj’s fitness has been a matter of concern. In late 2009, he injured his finger in the first One Day International match against Sri Lanka and was ruled out for the rest of the series. Earlier this year, he suffered from a severe ligament injury in a Test match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Punjab-c833 in 2010 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to his poor form and team’s disappointing performance under him in IPL 2009.
Despite the shortcomings, the skipper has enjoyed the full support of his captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758
Despite what Whatmore may have had to say about Yuvraj, the fact of the matter is that the southpaw has the talent to get the side out of difficult situations. He seemed to have regained some of his touch with that century that he hit against the Board President's XI side in Sri Lanka. However, the question is whether he will be able to get going when it really matters, i.e. in a Test match and prove the likes of Whatmore and other critics wrong.
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