MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma – Journey from ICC World T20 2007 to 2014

How the destiny has changed for Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh over the past seven years.

 

Seven years ago, a young team led by a 26-year-old MS Dhoni had won the inaugural World T20 Championship in South Africa. Fast forward: of the 15-member squad from the 2007 World T20 winning squad, only three were present in the just concluded World T20 2014 in Bangladesh. Sudatta Mukherjee looks at how destiny has changed for Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh over the past four years.

 

India has come a long way In the last seven years under MS Dhoni.Starting from the ICC World T20 2007 win, India has gone on to win the CB Series in 2008, Asia Cup in 2010, the World Cup in 2011 and finally the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. On Sunday, the whole nation and the world expected Dhoni to win his third ICC trophy and add another feather in the record books. However, as Darren Sammy said, Almighty had smiled on Mahela Jaywardene and Kumar Sangakkara. As the experienced Sri Lankan duo retired from Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket, Dhoni and Co registered another loss.

 

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In 2007 when India had lifted the inaugural T20 World Cup trophy, along with Dhoni, the other two players who were also present in the just concluded World T20 were Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma. A lot has had changed since then 2007.

 

Dhoni has played 49 T20Is, Yuvraj 42 and Rohit 40. After lifting the World T20 2007 trophy, Dhoni went on to lead India to win ICC World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013. For Yuvraj, it has been a roller-coaster ride. While being in and out of the Test side, Yuvraj’s all-round performance helped India become World Champions in 2011; cancer saw him stay away from the game for a long time only to return stronger but not so fit. While the youngest of the trio, more recently, Rohit has been at last able to cement his spot in the squad. This comes with him scoring a double century in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) against and with that becoming the third Indian to score 200 in ODIs.

 

All hasn’t been rosy for the three players. Let us look at their 2007 performances.

 

Player	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Avg	SR	Wkts	BBI	Bowl Avg	Eco
MS Dhoni	7	154	45	30.8	128.33	—	—	—	—
Yuvraj Singh	6	148	70	29.6	194.73	1	1 for 38	38	12.66
Rohit Sharma	4	88	50*	—	61	—	—	—	—

 

After seven years, Dhoni’s T20I average stands 32.88 and he has scored 822 runs from his 49 matches. Yuvraj has scored more runs than Dhoni in T20Is despite playing lesser matches than Dhoni. He has 968 runs under his name from his 40 matches. Yuvraj’s average is 31.22. While Rohit has scored 739 runs and has an average of 30.79. Yuvraj has also performed with the ball over time. He is bowling average of 16.78, at an economy rate of 7.19, which is pretty good by T20I standards.

 

Dhoni is yet to score a half-century in T20Is. His highest score in T20I is an unbeaten 48 against Australia in Sydney in 2012. Yuvraj, on the other hand, has won seven Man of the Match awards, two of them from the World T20 2007. Rohit Sharma has won two Man of the Match awards, of which one he got in 2007 World T20 and at the same venue in 2011. While Yuvraj scaled up and down the T20I Players Ranking.

 

Now, let us look at the trio’s performance in the ICC World T20 2014.

 

Player	Mat	Runs	HS	Bat Avg	SR	Wkts	BBI	Bowl Avg	Eco
MS Dhoni	6	50	24	50	125	—	—	—	—
Yuvraj Singh	6	100	60	20	98.03	0	—	—	13
Rohit Sharma	6	200	62*	40	123.45	—	—	—	—

 

While Dhoni’s performance has gone up in this World T20 since 2007, Yuvraj, who has been the player of the tournament in 2011 World Cup, has gone down. Rohit has also scaled up in his performance. Out of the four innings, Dhoni has been not out on three occasions.

 

The one player who has really slumped is Yuvraj Singh. His strike rate has gone down to 98.03 from 194.73. His batting average was 29.60 in 2007 World Cup and in 2014 tournament it was 20. Rohit has done well. He has scored 200 runs and has been the second highest run-getter from the Indian squad, after Virat Kohli, who is ahead on the list by miles.

 

Yuvraj’s performances have collapsed since the 2011 World Cup and many after Sunday’s World T20 final would be hoping to not see him play in many coming matches.

 

While Rohit has grabbed the opportunity, Dhoni has been all the same and matured into a game finisher.

 

At this point, after the World T20 2014, apart from Dhoni and Rohit, there is not much left for Yuvraj until and unless he improves.

 

(Sudatta Mukherjee is a reporter with CricketCountry. Other than writing on cricket, she spends penning random thoughts on her blog and produces weekly posts on new food joints at Whopping Weekends. She played Table Tennis for University of Calcutta. When she is not writing, you will catch her at a movie theatre or watching some English serial on her laptop. Her Twitter id is @blackrosegal)

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