Exactly a year ago when India were playing the 50-over World Cup, it was difficult to imagine Yuvraj Singh making a comeback into the team that was brimming with youthful exuberance.
Even more difficult was entertaining thoughts of Ashish Nehra, forced into international exile post the 2011 World Cup triumph, donning the blue jersey once again.
Cut to 2016, with a cumulative age of 70, the 36-year-old Nehra and 34-year-old Yuvraj have become important to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s World T20 title aspirations.
So much so that Dhoni is ready to let Nehra maintain his own “disciplined routine” and “remain fit” till the end of the World T20. With Yuvraj, he likes his “approach” and wants to be “patient” as contributions like “12 or 15” from the southpaw are “equally important”.
When he was quizzed about Yuvraj’s approach during his brief innings of 15 against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup opener, Dhoni said: “I think the approach was good. All of a sudden, you don’t want to go out there thinking that you want to do all those things. What’s important is to play deliveries according to its merit. He played a fabulous shot through mid-off. Even if he scored 15 runs, he got confidence. More he plays, he will become a different player. He needs a bit of time. It doesn’t really matter as to how many he scores but his approach was good. Few more like this situation will help us.”
As for Nehra, the skipper praised the left-arm fast bowler’s knowledge about his own body.
“Well, the beauty of Ashish Nehra is that he knows what he needs to do to be 100 per cent (fit) on the field. One of the major concerns about him was his fitness, he had a tendency of breaking down. He had a fixed routine.
“It’s like these are the things I need to do and whatever happens, he will follows that. That is the reason, he is so disciplined and is playing at the age of 36 or 37,” said Dhoni.
The skipper also agreed that the format suits him.
“The format suits him. It will be difficult for him to play 50 overs as he needs to be on field for three to three and half hours. In this format, the kind of experience he has, it really counts.
‘Hardik is a game-changer’
Impressed with Hardik Pandya’s ability to hit big shots from the first ball, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni says the youngster has proved to be a “game changer” for India with his all-round talent.
Pandya hit a quick-fire 18-ball-31 and then bowled four tight overs with figures of 1/23 in India’s 45-run win over hosts Bangladesh in the Asia Cup T20 opener. “Good to see him bowl four overs. It will give us a lot of strength — three fast bowlers and two proper spinners. You don’t need to change your team as every base is covered. People may feel that having seven proper batsman is a luxury but what’s the harm, if we have someone like him (Hardik).
“If he gets going, he gets you those 15 runs extra. If 160 is par-score, he can give you 165-175. It is good for bowlers. We wanted somebody like him. He is a game-changer,” Dhoni said.
“We don’t need to tell Hardik anything. He knows only one thing - that is to hit the ball, that’s what he does. He is someone who likes to clear the boundary,” Dhoni said when asked about instructions given to Pandya when he went to bat.
“The more games he will play, better he will get. But definitely he has a skill, which is a difficult one — that is to hit from the first ball.”
Dhoni also did not forget to mention how special Rohit Sharma’s 83 was.
“Overall, wicket was a difficult one to bat on. It was after 20 overs, when we scored 160, it might have given an impression that wicket had become easier to bat on, which was not the case. That makes Rohit’s innings even more special because, after three wickets fell, we needed a partnership. That’s when Hardik went and started playing his shots. At that time, Rohit made sure Hardik gets strike.
“Rohit himself used pace of the deliveries bowled back of length. He played cut shots, exploited the field. Because of Rohit, Hardik expressed himself and played those big shots.”