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Yuvraj Singh’s selection was emotional decision: Harsha Bhogle

By CricketCountry Staff

 

Noted TV commentator Harsha Bhogle feels all-rounder Yuvraj Singh’s selection in the Indian squad for T20 series against New Zealand was an emotional decision.

Yuvraj Singh's selection was emotional decision: Harsha Bhogle

Harsha Bhogle feels Yuvraj Singh will be the cynosure of all eyes during Saturday’s T20 match between India and New Zealand © AFP

By CricketCountry Staff

 

Mumbai: Sep 7, 2012

 

Noted TV commentator Harsha Bhogle feels all-rounder Yuvraj Singh’s selection in the Indian squad for T20 series against New Zealand was an emotional decision.

 

Speaking about India’s selection, he said, “It was an unusual selection though for Yuvraj hasn’t played a game since chemotherapy ate at his strength but, by all accounts, left his resolve untouched.

 

“Ordinarily you would have thought that he needed a couple of games to show if the strength had returned and if he was hitting a ball well enough to keep another player out.

 

“It was clearly an emotional selection but also one of solidarity with someone who had played outstandingly for India. I don’t think either Australia or, in the present dispensation England, would have picked him as quickly but we are an emotional people and you will hardly find anyone contesting his selection.”

 

Harsha feels though the match is between India and New Zealand, Yuvraj will be the cynosure of all eyes on Saturday.

 

He wrote in a column for Indian Express as saying, “Ostensibly Saturday’s match at Visakhapatnam will be between India and New Zealand.

 

“I suspect, though, that twenty-one of the twenty-two players on the field will find themselves largely irrelevant as everyone gets engulfed by the hugely emotional return of Yuvraj Singh to cricket. “

 

He further adds, “And though sport is normally played hard, by people unwilling to concede an inch, you can never divorce it from emotion.

 

“And I’m sure it will be that way when Yuvraj takes the field for his sheer presence, a tribute to what modern medicine and the human spirit can combine, will stir the feelings like few events have in recent times. It will tug at the heart, it will be that kind of match. New Zealand will seek to get him out first ball but they will be moved too.”

 

Yuvraj’s comeback to international cricket will be a huge moment but Harsha hopes that the star all-rounder doesn’t try to make a statement.

 

He said, “That said I will be very interested in seeing how he approaches playing for India again. He could get caught up in the moment, play the dramatic hero back from the brink, try too hard to make a statement, indeed try too hard to prove that he is back to being the player he was.

 

“It’s a tough one but I hope he doesn’t because then his head could be full of a million thoughts swirling uncontrollably, the mind jumping from one objective to the other and fatally letting the present disappear.

 

” Nobody will let him forget the enormity of the moment but peculiarly, he will need to if he has to make the best of it.”

 

Harsha is confident that if Yuvraj manages to play his natural game, he can tell a great story.

 

Harsha wrote, “I hope Yuvraj looks at the rest of his playing career as a celebration, as a lifeline thrown his way.

 

“I don’t know if he will ever be as good as he was, if he can get your heart racing by the majesty of his strokeplay. But if he can play like he belongs, that’s all, he will tell the world a great story.”

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