Dear Yuvraj… stay hungry, not foolish

Often when Yuvraj Singh’s place in the Test side is questioned, and it is often, his supporters will turn around and say: “When he is in form, he looks so good.”

But then again, tell us, which batsman looks bad when he is good form? Well, maybe Shivnarine Chanderpaul. But no one else comes to mind.

As soon as Yuvraj Singh was clean bowled in second innings of the first Test against West Indies at Kotla with India needing just one run to win the match, he sunk to his knees. His head was bowed and he looked at the ground – seemingly frozen in the spot.

On the larger scale, this wicket did nothing. India still won the match. West Indies still lost. But on an individual scale, the loose, almost casual defensive shot could come back to haunt Yuvraj very soon. Add the fact that in terms of poor shot selection, it almost matched his disastrous shot in the first innings and the left-hander has a problem.

Test cricket is very often about grabbing your chances. Ravinchandran Ashwin did that perfectly as did Pragyan Ojha.

For the first time since 2000, India was playing a Test match without Anil Kumble or Harbhajan Singh. In many ways, it was an occasion to be nervous. This was the future that we were looking at. But not for a moment did Ashwin or Ojha falter.

Ashwin ended up with figures of 3-81 (first innings) and 6-47 (second innings) to finish with a match total of 9-128 and the man-of-the-match award. Ojha took 6-72 in the first innings and 1-37 in the second and he was clearly not second best.

Both the spinners were hungry. They had the huge shadow of Harbhajan Singh to fight off and with the tour of Australia coming up; they knew that they had to prove themselves in India before they can start dreaming about an away tour.

But if that was the case for them, then it was perhaps even more severe for Yuvraj Singh.

The left-hander played his first Test for India in 2003. In 2004, he played a further five Tests, another four in 2005. In 2006, he got a break when he played nine Tests. In 2007, he played just two. A further four followed in 2008 and another six in 2009. Last year, he played just three Tests – two against Bangladesh and one against Sri Lanka. The whole point of this count back being that he has never got one solid go in Test cricket.

There are times when he’s been unfortunate but at some point, you have to make your own luck. He’s done it enough times in ODIs to know what needs to done. And he should also realise that the only reason he has made comeback after comeback after comeback into the Test team is because someone in the selection committee believes in his talent. But if talent leads you to play a casual shot in a Test match, then India can do without it.

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Cheteshwar Pujara… to mention just a few, are all waiting for a chance. They are hungry. They are young and they want in. And after eight years, Yuvraj should recognise that excelling and survival are two very different things. Right now, though, he is in danger of doing neither.