Yuvraj: Focused on my batting, not the occasion

Once a flamboyant batsman, the elder statesman of the team now has a different role of playing second fiddle to younger batsmen in the side. He had a match-winning partnership against Pakistan in the Asia Cup and on Saturday at Eden Gardens, a 61-run stand sealed the match in India’s favour.

India's Yuvraj Singh hits one over the top during the match against Pakistan at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday.

His small knock of 24 against Pakistan was worth its weight in gold and >Yuvraj Singh said that his “focus was on right things” like batting according to the demands of the situation rather than get overwhelmed by the vociferous capacity crowd at the Eden Gardens.

“I wanted to bat according to the situation no matter how big the occasion was. It was important to focus on right things. I just wanted to watch the ball and rotate the strike and I was able to do that. Unfortunately, I could not finish the game. Virat is in sublime form and Dhoni came and finished the game,” Yuvraj told bcci.tv .

New Role

Once a flamboyant batsman, the elder statesman of the team now has a different role of playing second fiddle to younger batsmen in the side. He had a match-winning partnership against Pakistan in the Asia Cup and on Saturday at Eden Gardens, a 61-run stand sealed the match in India’s favour.

“My job is to play a few balls and then play my attacking game. We were under a bit of pressure after losing the first game (against New Zealand). We did not bat the way we wanted to. Here, we lost three quick wickets which put us under pressure. We needed to get a partnership and the 50 plus stand with Virat took the pressure off us,” said the 35-year-old.

Yuvraj is happy that the team has got its confidence back which it will carry into the next match against Bangladesh. “I am happy that team won as it was important to get the confidence back. The next match is against Bangladesh and hope that we continue our good form.”

The hallmark of the Indian team’s batting in recent times has been their running between the wickets and even the senior player acknowledged the fact. “We understand our batting. The running between the wickets and especially the calling (for singles and twos) was good.”

He also praised the bowlers for restricting the opposition to 118 in 18 overs. “We restricted them well. They could never score more than six and half runs per over. The best part was that they could not score a lot of runs in the final overs.”