Expert Blog

Yuvraj Singh: To drop or not to drop?

One of India’s best batsmen finds himself out of the squad thanks to a poor run on the field and troubles off it. But for how long?

Earlier this month, Yuvraj Singh was left out of India’s Asia Cup squad. BCCI’s chairman of selectors Kris Srikkanth said major emphasis was placed on player fitness while picking the team and that’s an area Yuvraj has struggled with since his wrist injury. Add to that, he’s had a poor run in all forms of the game in 2010 which led to him being omitted from the squad. Seems like a reasonable argument to leave someone out but then again, Yuvraj isn’t just someone. When on fire, he’s right up there with the best in the game and it’s a questionable decision to leave him out of the Asia Cup. We decided to look at the numbers for the past two years and analyze this selection decision. 

The last twenty four months can be broken into four clear stretches for Yuvi. The first one dates back to 2008 when he played in the previous Asia Cup. Then there was stretch two when India played England and Sri Lanka. After that came stretch three with series against New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka. Most recently were the ODIs against Australia and the matches against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The table below highlights Yuvraj’s performances in those stretches. The Batting Momentum, indicated in the last column, is an overall measure of batting performance which combines runs scored and strike-rate.

Clearly Yuvraj has had a poor run of late in ODIs, averaging a paltry 24.7 in 11 matches, at a strike-rate of just 74.8. He averages 37 at a strike-rate of 89 for his career. Stretch 3 is more in-line with Yuvi’s average career numbers. The last time he really struggled was back in stretch 1 where he averaged 28.6 and had a batting momentum of 30, only slightly better than his most recent run. However, he bounced back straight after that with an unbelievable run, with 609 runs at an average of 76.1. That stretch included 3 hundreds and he scored at a phenomenal rate of 112.4.

A closer look at Yuvraj’s career indicates that he’s always been a very streaky player, typically having numerous stretches of very good matches peppered with some poor patches in the middle. The thing that stands out though is that he always bounces back from a bad stretch with some match-winning performances and past numbers indicate he’s due to rebound. While dropping him might be the slap on the wrist he needed given he’s also had troubles off the field, it’s unwise to leave him out of the team for too long. As India prepare for the 2011 World Cup, they’ll need Yuvraj’s firepower if they want to compete for the title. The Men in Blue will hope he’ll be at the start of one of his good stretches come the World Cup, since Yuvraj at his best is uncontainable. Ask Stuart Broad if you need confirmation.