Flat-track bully... out

I'm referring to the omission of Yuvraj Singh who made a bunch of inconsequential second-innings centuries against third rate attacks on the dead pitches of the subcontinent. He'd have been a great poster boy for Camel glue - so immovable are his feet againt the likes of Murali. Neither was he too happy when the ball rose above the knee rolls. We've seen FTBs before ... Salim Malik, Zaheer Abbas and Kambli come to mind. But those FTBs atleast faced the spinners well. Infact Zaheer Abbas was a nightmare for the Indian spinning quartet. Salim Malik played a couple of great knocks against spinners, especially Warne. Kambli, for all his shortcomings against the short ball was probably the best player against spin as long as he played. Why, even Azhar and Ganguly two borderline-FTBs (only because they scored 100s against Aus in Aus) were not only good against spin but also the moving ball. They did pretty well in England and NZ.

That leaves us with Yuvraj who's one of a kind. He can only play medium fast deliveries that stay below his knees. Back in 2000, when he burst on the scene with a serene 84 against McGrath and co, comms were raving about this kid that had all the time in the world to play the fast bowlers. So much promise frittered away. This kid was supposed to be Tendulkar's successor. His dad boasted that his son was like Bradman. Yes, maybe the don of T20 but not much else. How did this come about? I'm scratching my head.

He was kicked out a couple of times because his head was not in the right place. In Australia there were reports of an attitude problem. I think Yuvraj has had his chances and deserves to go the way of Vinod Kambli. The likes of RG Sharma and Raina have an abundance of talent. RG, especially deserves the break now in the longer form. Hopefully he gets to play in the XI.