Virender Sehwag: “If Ashish Nehra can make a comeback at 36, why not Yuvi?”
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Former India opener Virender Sehwag has backed veteran all-rounder Yuvraj Singh to return to the national team.
Yuvraj hasn’t played for India since June last year as he was dropped for his disappointing run of form with the bat.
However, Sehwag pointed out that if left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra was able to make his comeback at the age of 36, there is nothing stopping Yuvraj from representing India again.
“He’s not in the Indian team, but Yuvraj is still an amazing player,” Sehwag was quoted as saying by DNA India. “His talent is intact. Even a current India player can lose form. I don’t think we’ll get a player like him again. If his form is good, he’s a match-winner.
“It’s up to the selectors. If he performs in domestic cricket, or passes (yoyo), then why not? If Ashish Nehra can make a comeback at 36, why not Yuvi?”
Meanwhile, Sehwag also admitted that the Indian Premier League (IPL) has become the perfect avenue for the selectors to spot and keep an eye on up-and-coming players.
To illustrate his point further, Sehwag noted how the IPL helped kickstart the careers of Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan.
“I think what the IPL did to the Indian cricket is that it gave unknown players to the Indian cricket team,” he said. “If they play for their first class team, they will take at least five to six years to come and play for India. But through the IPL, those players, who have talent and who did well – they just did well in one season and next year they were part of team India, that is what IPL did.
“Ravindra Jadeja is one of them and so is Yusuf Pathan. Recently Deepak Hooda, fast bowlers (Mohammed) Siraj and (Basil) Thampi – they got picked (in the Indian squad) because of IPL performance.
“The IPL is giving unknown players to the Indian cricket team, Indian cricket fans and the same thing happened with other countries. If you look at David Warner, he played IPL first and then he played for Australia, similarly Maxwell. It is a great platform for players to showcase their talent.”
Speaking from personal experience, Sehwag admitted that while the IPL benefited him financially, players saw their prices decrease if they were dropped from the national team.
“(The IPL) benefited me financially, because when I played for India, it was Rs 2 lakh per game, Test matches Rs five lakh a game and then suddenly in the IPL you get Rs 10- crore or Rs 12-crore contract and then you are financially secure and you can work more on fitness and perform for the IPL and India,” he said.
“The moment you get dropped from India (the national squad), prices drop which we have seen in a lot of players. Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh (since) they are not playing for India, they did not get (Rs) 10 or 12 crore.
When asked which domestic Twenty20 competition is the biggest in the world, Sehwag was quick to choose the IPL.
Explaining his decision, Sehwag said: “The IPL is the biggest league in the world and one of the favourites (among various leagues) in the world, because a single player, who is playing cricket, anywhere in the world, wants to play in the IPL.
“So that shows that the credibility and publicity of the IPL is so big that even an uncapped player, who is a player of some other country, wants to play in the IPL. Almost all cricket-playing nations find representation in the IPL which is not the case with other T20 leagues.
“The IPL is the biggest because all nations’ players are playing in the IPL, which you would not find in any other (cricket) league such as Big Bash, CPL or BPL, where Indian players are not there. That’s why those leagues are not as big. Only in the IPL all world class players are playing and that is why IPL is the best in the world.”