‘Disappointments a part of life’
Axed from the Test squad on grounds of poor form and fitness, Yuvraj Singh on Monday insisted he was in good nick during the Sri Lanka tour and the selectors’ decision has come as a big disappointment to him.
Yuvraj, who has been struggling to cement his place in the Test side, felt scoring a century and a fifty in the two games he played in Sri Lanka should have earned him a place in the two-match series against Australia.
He had smashed 118 in the practice game before the first Test at Galle, where he made 52 in the first innings. “Selection is not in my hands. In Sri Lanka I played two games, in the first I scored a hundred and a fifty in the second. If that’s not good enough, I can’t say,” he told reporters here.
“Of course it is a disappointment but disappointments have become part of my life. In the last two years, I have had a lot of injuries and struggled. It’s out of my hands,” he added.
Yuvraj missed the second Test due to illness and was left out of the third Test as well after Suresh Raina scored a century on his debut in the second match. Asked about his fitness, the Punjab left-hander said, “It’s much better now. Sri Lanka tour was hard for me especially due to dengue and the neck injury. In the next few days I will be fitter.”
Yuvraj lends a lot of solidity to the middle-order in the Indian ODI team but has never been a regular in the Test side.
Asked why he was struggling in the longer format of the game, Yuvraj said he himself could not identify the shortcomings. “Not a great feeling. For the last seven years I have been trying to cement my place in the Test team but have not been able to do that. And that is a big disappointment. The reasons may be many. The first reason even I don’t know. Then I was injured and got ill.
“The last two games, I am satisfied and then Raina scored a hundred and he got the chance to play the next match. These things are not under my control,” he said.
