Star player who won two World Cups for India was ignored by selectors, then MS Dhoni did this to take him to the team, his name is…

New Delhi: Just imagine what would have happened if Yuvraj Singh had not been there in the 2011 World Cup? The player who was the Man of the Tournament played a huge role in winning the World Cup. Now, the coach of that time, Gary Kirsten, has revealed that the members of the national selection committee were not sure about selecting Yuvraj Singh in the team. And if he and Captain MS Dhoni had not insisted so much, the story would have been completely different.

There was a controversy regarding the selection

In a conversation with a website, Kirsten said, ‘Thank God that we selected Yuvraj because the matter was very close. It was not an easy selection and there was a lot of debate with the members of our selection committee regarding Yuvraj. The selectors’ debate was around 15 players.’ He said, I was very keen to take Yuvraj and Dhoni also wanted something similar. This was due to Yuvraj’s great experience. And you see that at the end of the tournament, Yuvi was the Man of the Tournament.’

The time before the 2011 World Cup

This selection and debate happened before the 2011 World Cup, when there was confusion over Yuvraj’s name in the selectors’ meeting. At a time when Yuvraj Singh’s spot in the squad was still uncertain, coach Gary Kirsten and captain MS Dhoni strongly advocated for his inclusion in the team.

The journey from the dressing room to the field

Gary said, ‘I was always a fan of Yuvraj Singh. Our relationship was such that sometimes he used to get frustrated with me, but I liked Yuvi very much. I wanted to see Yuvi scoring runs all the time because when I saw him batting, it was amazing to watch him. But he had his own journey and the credit for this goes to Patty Upton (mental conditioning coach).’

Mental preparation and experience became the reason

Kirsten said, ‘Paddy played a very important role in preparing Yuvi for the tournament. This was Yuvraj’s last big tournament before cancer. Yuvraj also took big decisions to prepare himself for the mega tournament.’

Effect of stubbornness

However, how right Kirsten and Dhoni’s insistence on selecting Yuvraj proved to be became clear after India’s victory. Yuvraj scored 362 runs at a strike-rate of over 86 in the tournament and took 15 wickets.

Performance brought respect

This also includes the century scored against West Indies in Chennai. At the same time, Yuvraj scored a half-century against Ireland and also took 5 wickets.

Yuvraj’s selection became the turning point

From this entire incident, it became clear that selecting Yuvraj Singh, who was once surrounded by uncertainty, became the most important decision of India’s World Cup campaign, whose success was seen by the whole country.

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