Yuvraj Singh: India discard, not yet Pune's

The prying eyes searched for Yuvraj Singh here as his team Pune Warriors India took the field for practice at the Sawai Man Singh stadium rather late on Saturday by which time the temperatures had sank enough to allow a little warm-up for even the most aged players. The cool evening wouldn’t have drawn out much body salts. In fact, the long-retired SA paceman Allan Donald, now the coach of Pune Warriors, came out of that session with little sweat. No one, however, could spot the ageing Indian southpaw. It was a day when he was excluded from India’s Champions Trophy squad and the attention had to be on him. Yuvraj Singh is among those few who make massive headlines on their comeback bids. Ever since he made his sterling debut in 2000 and promised brilliance, he’s flattered to deceive on quite a few occasions. But everytime he has come back strongly, he has conjured up elegance and ferocity together, something hardly any India batsmen, at least in the past twenty years, has been able to display. On the eve of his first international – a T20 --- after comeback from cancer late last year, the shots came through, even though age betrayed him on the field. MS Dhoni earnestly cried to people to not put extra pressure on him. It couldn’t be helped. He is a star and the comeback was another of his admirable efforts that caught everyone's fancy. In the ongoing T20 league, Yuvraj has shown those beautiful strokes only in patches and hasn’t impressed with fielding nor with his slow left arm spinners. That explains why the selectors decided for a wind of change. Despite that, Pune Warriors count him as their premier player. Of course, a team at the base of the points table can’t afford to think otherwise! Can they? Donald cleared all doubts saying that Yuvi will play. “Yes, he will,” he asserted, nodding his head in incredulity. “He wasn’t there for the practice, but he’ll definitely play.” Donald has had to do quite a lot of defending for his team. Try as he might, they just don’t win. And with Rajasthan Royals up this time in their backyard, it'll be a task. Although he put in some words showing optimism, he wasn’t exactly sanguine. “That’s the painstaking thing of being a coach,” he conceded towards the end of a press meet and then also mentioned frustrations of being a coach. Well, guess, it is time for Yuvraj to wipe frustration, his and Donald’s.