The seasoned Yuvraj Singh was recalled to India’s limited overs team to lend solidity to an inexperienced middle-order and ease the burden on Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captain Virat Kohli said here on Saturday.
Yuvraj’s last ODI was against South Africa at Centurion in December 2013. He though played his last T20I versus Australia in Mohali last March.
“Yes, that (experience) is something we have discussed before picking Yuvi because we cannot leave so much burden on MS (Dhoni) alone in the middle order. I am willing to take responsibility up the
order, but there needs to be one more guy with him (Dhoni) down the order in case the top order doesn’t fire,” Kohli said on the eve of the first of three One-Day Internationals against England.
Kohli said the team’s think-tank needed to get its combination right quickly as these were the only games it had in its hands before the Champions Trophy in June.
“If the top order doesn’t fire you are left with MS alone and he is guiding the youngsters more often than not. Which is fine, if you have 15-20 games till a big tournament (begins). But when you have only three games to prepare for a big tournament, I think you need to get all your resources in place. You need to make sure the guys who have been picked are in good form,” said Kohli who added that Ambati Rayudu had also been considered to do this specific job but was injured for a long time.
According to Kohli, the series was significant in terms of preparing for the Champions Trophy. “We are taking these three games as knockout games in our own heads because we need to prepare for Champions Trophy and we need to be in the right kind of frame because the tournament is like that — it is very competitive and very quick. So we need to be at our best from game one of the series.”
In terms of the series itself, Kohli said he would like to see how England responded if they lost early wickets.
“They seem to be quite fearless, which is always a good thing in the shorter format. But at the same time, I’ve always felt, to be a consistent performer in the ODI format you need to understand strike rotation as well. You just can’t go with one sort of momentum. That is something that we’ll look to counter. See if they lose a few early wickets, (and) what are the plans they come up with.”