On Yuvraj’s return: Yuvi has been the backbone of our batting line-up. His position, number four, is an important slot. You have time to settle down and after the ball change happens after the 34th over, if you have an individual like Yuvraj who can capitalise on that, it is of great help. It is not only his batting but his bowling too because you get one more part-timer when he is bowling well. When Yuvraj comes in, we have but four part-timers who can contribute so that if one of them has an off-day, we still have two or three who can fill the space.

On a possible change in batting order: It is a very difficult change to make. We have Viru and Sachin to open, Gautam at three, Yuvraj at number four, the next slot vacant is number five. Depending on the strength of the individuals and players who can have a bigger impact on the game, we select individuals to bat at that particular slot. I float at times, bat at different slots, but we have a fixed batting line-up when it comes to these four guys.

On Sehwag’s bowling: I can say that Sehwag won’t bowl in the next game because at the international level, you have to bowl in the nets, only then can you bowl in the match. I don’t see him bowling in the nets, so there is very little chance of him bowling in the match unless something really bad happens.

On India’s winning percentage in ODIs: Not so long back, we were winning close to 70 percent of the games. But after five of our last ten games, it is close to the 50 percent mark, which means it has come down. This team is going through a period of change. We are missing quite a few individuals because of injuries. We have youngsters coming in and learning the art of batting and bowling in the one-day format. We are going through a tough period where everybody is finding his feet but when we are through with this by the end of the year, we will have individuals who would have played maybe 25-30 one-day internationals and you can rely more on them. They would have played ample games and would have learnt a lot.

DH News Service