Virat Kohli hopes Yuvraj Singh’s presence will free up MS Dhoni to play the big shots © AFP
Virat Kohli, India’s new limited-overs captain, has said Yuvraj Singh was included in the squads for the ODI and T20I series against England to reduce the burden on MS Dhoni in an inexperienced middle order ahead of the Champions Trophy in June.
Kohli also said Ambati Rayudu, who made a century for India A in a warm-up against England, was not picked in the squads because he had not had enough game time after missing the Ranji Trophy season because of an injury.
Yuvraj, on the other hand, scored 672 runs at an average of 84 in five matches for Punjab, with score of 260 and 177. Though he had averaged only 18.53 in his last 19 ODIs going back to 2012, Yuvraj was selected because there wasn’t enough time to groom a younger batsman: India have only three ODIs before the Champions Trophy.
“We cannot leave so much burden on MS alone in the middle order,” Kohli said on the eve of the first ODI against England in Pune. “I am willing to take responsibility up the order, but there needs to be one more guy with him down the order in case the top order doesn’t fire.”
“If the top order doesn’t fire, you are left with MS alone and he is guiding the youngsters more often than not, which is fine if you have 15-20 games till a big tournament. When you have only three games, you need to make sure the guys who have been picked are in good form. That’s why I said we brought in Yuvi, to have the best batting combination possible, and Yuvi has had a very good first-class season. This just gives the team much more balance in the middle and lower-middle order with MS and Yuvi.”
Yuvraj and Dhoni have scored 2795 runs in partnership at an average of 50 in 63 ODIs, and Kohli said Yuvraj’s return would allow Dhoni to play shots without worrying about the thinness of the line-up after him.
“I think he [Dhoni] will have a bit more assurance knowing that he doesn’t have to think twice before attempting a big shot,” Kohli said. “They feed off each other’s momentum and one can play the aggressive role and one can keep knocking it around in singles. I’m sure they will looking forward to doing it together.
“To have two experienced guys compared to one is a massive difference. I am sure Hardik [Pandya] and Kedar [Jadhav] can learn a lot from them batting along with them.”
More to follow …
Arun Venugopal is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo. @scarletrun
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo