I find Yuvraj Singh to be a fascinating player. He is a match winner on his day. But one of the things that most people don’t agree with me is that he is massively under-rated for the things that he has achieved in life.
Nobody sees him as a grand player, he is only seen as a good player. What I find interesting is that nobody even considers Yuvraj Singh to be the un-sung hero of Indian cricket, that title goes to Rahul Dravid for the players in his era.
I think that Yuvraj Singh is the unsung hero of Indian cricket. And one whose story is a brave and beautiful one.
Yuvraj Singh was the most important player during the 2011 world cup that India won. He was instrumental as both his batting and bowling were crucial for India’s win in many matches. He does not cave in under pressure and performs better in most crucial matches that I can remember of.
Not only was he important for the 2011 World cup win, he was important part of 2007 ICC World T20 that India won, under the captaincy of Dhoni.
Prior to his selection in the senior Indian team, he had already won a world cup. He was part of the under-19 team that won the world cup in 1999-00, but that’s not the only part – He was the “man of the series” in that world cup win too!
Now the question is, why a player who has been instrumental in winning world cups for India, considered to be less iconic than lets say Sachin Tendulkar or not considered to be even an unsung hero like Rahul Dravid or VVS Laxman? I think there are two parts to answer that question-
- Why less iconic than Sachin? The answer is consistency. Consistency is what people like and remember. And though Yuvraj won matches on his day, he was never considered as reliable as Sachin, who kept of making runs year after year. With Yuvraj, it was either a flash of brilliance or a streak of brilliance and to be an iconic brand, you have to be consistent.
- Why not considered as an unsung hero? If you ask most people of my generation about the unsung hero of Indian cricket, the answer would be Rahul Dravid. Why? Because he was not Sachin Tendulkar, not Saurav Ganguly and yet was constantly making runs. But why not Yuvraj Singh? Well , I think its because of personality differences. Dravid is quite, determined and he looks the part of someone who would be an unsung hero. He does not give his wickets to easy shots.
Yuvraj is flamboyant, hits sixes and is seen around pretty girls too much. He does not fit the part!
Well, my reasoning here is partly due to intuition and partly with some conversations that I have been into. When considering someone as an unsung hero, we should definitely evaluate the impact that player has had on the results of the team. And although I love Dravid too, I think Yuvraj’s batting has added more important tournament to India’s kitty than Dravid’s. So why in the god’s name is Yuvraj not the unsung hero? What do you think?
neeraj's 