Yuvraj is a champion player and as a skipper I’m happy to have him back: Dhoni

Yuvraj Singh’s inclusion raised many eye brows from the critics as they termed it to be an emotional decision. However, the southpaw silenced all with his performance in his return match and his selection is something that has the approval of everyone in the team — having Yuvraj Singh back in the team, says a report in The Hindu.

When asked if his inclusion was an emotional decision or one based on form, captain M.S. Dhoni said that he would not like to discuss selection matters and said, “But as skipper, I am really happy to have him in the side. The reason being he is a champion player, he is a match-winner. More so we don’t really play with a fifth bowler… we don’t really have that genuine all-rounder. All these part-timers can contribute. Yuvraj is one of them,” he says.

Meanwhile Irfan Pathan, someone who has been through the thick and thin like Yuvraj, said that having him back in the dressing room was emotional. “Very emotional. But after that it is about performing really well as a group. We hope to perform well as a group and make this World T20 really memorable not only for us, but for Yuvi as well. You know, I was in constant touch with Yuvi throughout last year when he was abroad for the treatment and all. So obviously you get attached, especially when something like that happens to your teammate, your family member,” he said.

According to a Times Of India report, after the Olympics, it's now cricket's turn to capitalize on the trend of using social networking platforms to whip up interest. “The World T20, which begins in Sri Lanka on September 18, will have its own dedicated Twitter page, a first for an ICC event. The World T20-twitter integration comes on the heels of similar exercises during Euro 2012 and the Olympics. A dedicate page -- https://twitter.com/#wt20 -- has already been launched and is expected to pull together the best content from twitter about the tournament,” says the report, adding that  as many as 15 members of the Indian T20 cricket team are already on Twitter, including MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag , Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma and Zaheer Khan.

“In fact, the latest tweet from Yuvraj, who returned to the cricket field after 11 months following his recovery from ill-health, was: "The singhs are off to sri lanka !! Look forward to the big tournament!"

Meanwhile a report in Deccan Herald  says that before the inaugural edition of the World T20 in South Africa, India were quite chary of playing Twenty20 matches. “They had played just one T20 international prior to the event in South Africa in 2007 and sent a young team under MS Dhoni as then captain Rahul Dravid and other two seniors Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly pulled out of the tournament. Little did anyone realise that the 13-day tournament would change the face of the game and the fortunes of one individual. India’s stirring run in Johannesburg, where they beat arch-rivals Pakistan in a last-over thriller to lift the trophy, entrenched the shortest format of the game firmly in the consciousness of the cricketing universe while at the same time catapulting Dhoni as the newest face of Indian cricket,” says the report.

“Be that as it may, the South Africa event was an unqualified success. From the first bowl-out which India won after they tied their league match against Pakistan to Yuvraj Singh’s stunning six sixes off Stuart Broad to T20s first hat-trick by Brett Lee against Bangladesh, the first edition was a perfect potboiler. The T20 also proved to be a format where it provided a level-playing field for ‘weaker’ teams as witnessed in Zimbabwe’s defeat of the mighty Australians,” adds the report.