Since Yuvraj Singh’s comeback into the international cricket critics started doing the rounds and lot of people raised doubt whether he will be the same anymore after a strenuous nine month sabbatical from cricket to deadly rare germ cell cancer.
He had a decent outing in the T20 match against New Zealand and the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka. And now he has rose to the occasions in a grand way and whatever doubt was left about his comeback has been erased by him with authority. He scored a brilliant 208 off 243 deliveries laced with 33 fours and three towering sixes in the Duleep trophy semifinals against the Central Zone and it would for sure had shut the cynics up.
But Yuvraj feels that he was not trying to prove anything and wanted to get back to his usual self.
"It is easy to criticize. I don't really think of my critics. If I did, I would not be able to concentrate on my game. My job is to bat and get runs, do my bowling and fielding. I'm not trying to prove anyone wrong. I am only trying to come back to my normal self," a report in The Times of India quoted him as saying.
Asked if he would be fit enough to take on the England team in the forthcoming Test series, he said: "I'm not thinking of what is going to happen in the future. I'm taking one game at a time. If I am fit enough and doing well, then it is not my call. It is my duty to go there, spend time at the crease and get my body fit for the four-day or five-day game. That is what I'm doing now."
Is he game for captaincy especially since there is a talk of having different skippers for the different formats? "I'm not thinking of all that nor am I following who is going to be captain for which format. My job is to bat. As a player I want play my cricket and not think of who is captaining the side," the report further added the southpaw as saying.
Meanwhile a report in The Hindustan Times says that More than the amount of runs he scored, Yuvraj found it more satisfying that he had spent more than five hours in the middle which is a fair indication that he has recovered even faster than what one expected him to.
"Especially, after what I went through, it really felt good that I batted for so long. What makes this double hundred special is that I had spent a good amount of time in the middle which is satisfying."
"Everyone knows that T20 is very different from playing first class cricket. In the T20s, you don't have time to plan but that was not the case over here. I had enough time to plan my innings and that really helped,” Yuvraj was quoted in the report.