Yuvraj Singh claims MS Dhoni did selector's job by helping him to decide cricket future

Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh retired from all forms of cricket last year in June, drawing curtains on a 20-year-long career. Yuvraj Singh has played for India in 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is. The former all-rounder amassed 1,900 runs in Tests while churning out another 8,701 runs in ODIs and a further 1,177 runs in T20Is. During his time, he was one of the cleanest strikers of the cricket ball and the southpaw had the ability to cross boundaries with ease.

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Yuvraj Singh credits MS Dhoni for giving him clarity

However, his career was ruined by cancer and that too when he was at the peak of his game, The southpaw made a comeback but wasn't the same player ever again. Recently, Yuvraj Singh revealed that Indian skipper Virat Kohli was the one who backed him but it was MS Dhoni who showed him the clear picture by letting him know that he wasn't in the selectors' scheme of things for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

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While speaking to News18, Yuvraj Singh said when he made his comeback, Virat Kohli supported him and without that, all of it wouldn't have been possible. However, he reckoned that MS Dhoni did as much as he could by showing him the real picture and providing him clarity, something which the panel of selectors, headed by MSK Prasad didn't back then. Yuvraj has often been vocally critical about the selection procedures and policies of the Indian team since Prasad took over, that largely resulted in India's exit from the World Cup 2019 in the semi-final.

Yuvraj Singh further said that till the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, MS Dhoni had a lot of confidence in him and used to tell him that he was his main player. Yuvraj Singh added that once he returned from illness, the game changed and a lot of changes happened in the team. Yuvi opined that as far as the 2015 World Cup is concerned, one can’t really pinpoint at the reason behind his exclusion so it is a very personal call. Yuvraj Singh stated that he understood that as a captain, sometimes you can’t justify everything because at the end of the day, you have to see how the team performs.

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Yograj Singh says Yuvraj Singh was robbed of India captaincy by destiny

Yuvraj Singh's father Yograj Singh has built a reputation of criticising MS Dhoni. Yograj Singh compared MS Dhoni to Sourav Ganguly recently and said that the former didn't back his players the way the latter did. While speaking to News 24, Yograj Singh said that he had lately watched videos featuring Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir or Yuvraj Singh where everybody had said something about MS Dhoni directly or indirectly. He further asked why Ganguly isn't questioned so much as Dhoni for his leadership.

Yograj Singh added that when Sourav Ganguly started building the team, its ranking was 7. He took youngsters like Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir under his wing and backed them to the hilt for building a new team. Yograj Singh even went ahead to claim that Yuvraj Singh was supposed to be India’s next captain but MS Dhoni was appointed captain due to 'destiny' and he also got a well-set team.

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IMAGE COURTESY: AP