Test cricket is dying, people want to watch and play T20 cricket: Yuvraj Singh

May 4th, 2022, Mumbai: Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh says the lack of specialized middle-order batsmen is one of the critical reasons India has struggled at ICC events. “When we won the World Cup (2011), we all had a set position to bat,” says Yuvraj, who had won the “Player of the Tournament” in that edition of the 50-over showpiece. “I felt 2019 World Cup; they didn’t plan it well.”

Yuvraj says the constant chop-and-change did not help the team’s cause at the 2019 World Cup. “They got Vijay Shankar to bat at #4 with just 5-7 ODIs, then they replaced him with Rishabh Pant, who had played 4 ODIs,” says Yuvraj, who felt an in-form Ambati Rayadu’s experience would have served India better. “When we played the 2003 World Cup, Mohd. Kaif, (Dinesh) Mongia, and I had already played 50-odd ODIs.”

The former middle-order lynchpin says the Indian team management has a similar problem even in T20 cricket. “Our middle-order (batsmen) in T20 bats higher in franchise cricket,” Yuvraj says, emphasizing that batting positions should be allocated to the players earmarked for the World Cup. “That is where we lacked in the last T20 World Cup.”

Why would someone play five-day cricket and get five lakh rupees?: Yuvraj Singh

In the second part of his interview on Home of Heroes, Sports18’s newest offering, Yuvraj also says T20 & T10 are the future of cricket. “Test cricket is dying. People want to watch T20 cricket; people want to play T20 cricket,” says Yuvraj, who feels the money that players make for playing shorter format forces players to rethink their priorities. “Why would someone play five-day cricket and get five lakh rupees and today play T20 cricket and get 50 lakh? Players who have not made it to international cricket are getting 7-10 crores,” explains Yuvraj.

Yuvraj says that ODI cricket will also struggle to find mind space. “You watch a T20 game and then watch a 50-over game – it looks like a Test match now. After 20 overs, they are like, ‘There are 30 overs to bat!’,” says Yuvraj. “So, definitely T20 is taking over everything.”