Yuvraj Singh has rued the lack of support from the India team management, which left him with the regret of not playing another World Cup match after his Man-of-the-Tournament performance in India's 2011 win. He argued that the lack of clarity, which led to lack of stability, hurt India at the World Cup, where India failed to recover from a top-order collapse in the semi-final against New Zealand. "I was dropped, then Manish Pandey came in, then one-two other players came in, then KL Rahul came in," Yuvraj said. "KL was tried, then Raina came back, then they went with Rayudu. Rayudu played for eight-nine months, he scored 90 in NZ, Man of the Match, and your team should have been set there. Then before the World Cup, you lost to Australia 3-2, Rayudu had a bad tournament, suddenly Vijay Shankar came in.
"And the highest score by an India No. 4 at the World Cup was 48. I don't really understand that. The captain, coach and selectors should have known that No. 4 is a very important spot especially in conditions in England, where the ball seams. The No. 4 batsman has to be technically strong and has to be given a number of opportunities.
"Vijay Shankar didn't have that experience. Rishabh Pant didn't have the experience. Dinesh Karthik, who was experienced, was sitting out and suddenly goes to bat in the semi-final. I really don't understand what the think tank was thinking. If you want to get the best out of somebody, you have to make them feel secure. A player can never perform when he's insecure. That was the big reason India didn't win the World Cup. I thought India and England were the best teams in the World Cup. There was no reason why India shouldn't have played the final."
Yuvraj said he saw shades of himself in the big-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman Pant, but felt the youngster needed more support and understanding from the team management. "The big hitters are always talked about, but I had support from [Sourav] Ganguly and there was nobody criticising me every day," he said. "Everybody is criticising him. When things are not happening, talk to him, try to understand his mind. I feel that Rishabh's issue is his mental make-up. How do you get the best out of his mental make-up? He has made runs in the Ranji Trophy and has scored two away Test hundreds; 150 in Australia, one in England. He's played some big knocks. He's shown his talent, he's been fantastic in the IPL.
He's played eight-ten ODIs, so what are you expecting of him? "Obviously he didn't pick the best shots to hit, but how will you get out his best? You can't suppress him and get his best. You will have to put an arm around his shoulder, praise him, take him to the nets. You will have to sit with him in the evening, talk to him over dinner: 'what's going on in your mind?' Somebody like the batting coach should take that opportunity to get the best out of him. Statements like "fearless and careless" is not going to help anybody's case. It is going to spoil his mental make-up."
There was a dig at the selectors too. "That is the decision the selectors… well, selectors actually don't make that many decisions… the team management has to sit with the chief selector and decide let's make the guys secure first. If we lose, it's okay. If we lose again, it's still okay. The team is not that bad. It will still win. They need to groom guys."
Yuvraj also called for more support for wristspinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as India opt for less attacking spinners who provide depth in batting. He said it was "stupid" to aim for depth at the cost of proper bowlers.
