Like Yuvi, the well-known Australian batsman Michael Bevan, too, was brilliant in ODIs but failed miserably in Tests. He just couldn’t adapt to the line and length he faced from the bowler. At first he did not believe he had a problem. But when it kept happening innings after innings, it got to him. The more he thought about it, the more he discussed it, the more pressure he ended up putting on himself, until the problem became psychological rather than technical. Bevan scored 785 in 18 Tests at an average of 29.07, whereas in 232 ODIs he scored 6912 runs at 53.58 and also won some amazing matches on his own. Compare his figures with those of Yuvi who, in 35 Tests scored 1775 runs at an average of 34.80 but in 274 ODIs scored 8051 runs with an average of 37.62. Bevan remained not out on 67 occasions. Perhaps he focussed too much on the short ball solution. But when he acknowledged that the short ball was a real problem, he tried to do something about it. Yuvi, unfortunately, feels he does not have a problem.
Greg Chappell, who has studied the game of both Bevan and Yuvi, says, ‘Yuvi and Michael Bevan are very similar players. They make ODI cricket look simple, but neither has been able to adjust to the longer format. Both had difficulties with pace, especially when it was delivered between chest and head with catching fielders close to the bat. I have no doubt that had they come to grips with the mental aspects of this, they could both have been successful at Test cricket.
‘Why they were able to overcome their doubts in ODIs is that often the field was back by the time they came to the wicket and it was harder for opposition teams to bowl their best fast bowlers for long periods. Both were great finishers in ODI cricket and most teams would be happy to have them in their line-up. And the combination of Yuvi and Dhoni was almost unbeatable.’
Here Greg Chappell is spot on. Psychology plays a very crucial role. If a player is unwilling to make the adjustments demanded by the longer format, his performance cannot improve.
Vengsarkar, who himself loved playing the hook shot, analyses Yuvi’s technique against short stuff. ‘I guess the problem is his initial front foot movement. He will be okay if he sorts out the initial movement (just before the ball is delivered). He has to keep his head as steady as possible while facing fast bowlers, and try and remain side on all the time. Practising against short-pitched deliveries with tennis balls might help too.’
At the international level, rival team managements provide their players with vital technical inputs, and they practise according to a plan. In the case of Yuvi, the strategy they adopt is to test him against the short stuff, push him on the back foot and then mix it with deliveries around off stump which tempt him to drive. He gets away with it on subcontinent pitches, but in Test matches, on tracks that afford bounce and lateral movement, he struggles when faced with bowling which has pace. The other issue is the consequence of his being a wristy player. Whenever a player uses more wrist to deliver added force, he is in danger of getting out if he makes even the slightest error in timing. Also, while playing the quickies, the inherent urge to go chest on has to be controlled at all times. The fact that Yuvi squares up every now and then is because of a combination of the facts discussed above. Whenever a batsman gets into a bad trot, there are a few things he does: he drops his back lift till he starts to get back his feel, he starts to play in the V, he starts to focus more on the bottom hand, keeping the face of the bottom hand in the direction of the shot and holding his elbow out, thereby forcing himself to lock into a side on position. One of the areas that batsmen err in consistently is the placement of their toes. Time and again, we have observed Yuvi fall prey to this small but crucial slip. When playing back, if the back toe faces cover, it naturally forces the body to square up, and in order to play through cover, the batsman has to compensate and correct his downswing. He starts to play inside out to a ball he should be playing straight.
Another factor that needs to be emphasized is the advent of the helmet in the sport. As Saad Bin Jung says, ‘A player with a helmet starts to close his eyes while one without a helmet keeps them open at all times and watches the ball right through. And that’s why it’s absolutely necessary, keeping in mind that every Indian batsman has a similar problem with the short-pitched delivery, that we try and find out if we are making a mistake during early training. Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Barry Richards, Rohan Kanhai, Vijay Manjrekar, G.R. Vishwanath, to name a few, learnt their game and moulded their instincts into technique without a helmet. Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj, Raina, Kohli did it with a helmet. This is where the problem lies. Maybe proper technique can only be inculcated without the helmet.’
The former Mumbai opener Zubin Bharucha, who scored a hundred on debut for Mumbai in both the Irani Trophy and the Ranji Trophy, and is at present coach of the Rajasthan Royals, analyses Yuvi’s game very well. He says that when he was invited by Yograj Singh to Chandigarh to work with Yuvi for a few days, a couple of things struck him about the young man. One was his ability to learn something quickly and adapt it, the other his stunning talent of striking a cricket ball as cleanly as one might ever see, the only other person with similar purity of strike being the young Sachin Tendulkar.
‘At that time, when I evaluated his technique, I observed that there was minimal on-side play. One of the things I was keen on achieving on that trip was to get him to score more runs between mid-on and fine-leg. He understood the importance of the same and quickly adapted his foot position as well as the follow through movement. No cricketing manual will tell you this, but all great on-side players know that when one plays on the on-side, it is important to fall over with the back leg coming through in front of the body. He picked up the movement and immediately started using it. I truly believe there are only a few minor tweaks, especially with the feet and downswing, required for him to go on and become a successful Test player at number five for India.
‘It’s actually a problem common to quite a few Indian batsmen: the commitment of the front foot early and across the body. This becomes fatal when one misjudges length, and it’s something which happens with regular frequency, as it’s part and parcel of batting. After you commit that front foot forward and realize the ball is a little short, you withdraw it, and that’s the biggest error you can make, because it means you are taking the foot and head away from the line of the ball and, as a result, will have no option but to hang the bat outside the body. And this, as we all know, has disastrous results, as now you are only presenting half a bat to the ball and will, more often than not, end up nicking it.’
Bharucha adds, ‘A number of present-day Indian batsmen like Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir also suffer from this initial front foot movement. This is no fault of theirs, it’s simply driven by the conditions in which one has learnt one’s cricket, the result of having been brought up playing on low, and slow, wickets. Of course, one could always question the quality of instruction available, as opposed to blaming the cricketer. However, a few sessions focussed on understanding the repercussions of their actions can easily solve the problem, as these guys are all amazingly talented.
‘Virat Kohli, too, does it occasionally, but gets away with it at times because of standing further towards leg stump, which helps him get the bat down on a better plane, i.e., “over middle stump” more often than not, as opposed to it coming down outside off stump, which it would be if you stand on middle stump – this only exacerbates caught behind and LBW dismissals.’
Kapil Dev, one of the great natural all-rounders the game has known, has a simple philosophy. He believes that no cricketer must overload the body. ‘Initially, when I was young, I was bowling quick, but later when Sunil Gavaskar explained to me that as a main bowler I would be required to bowl 25 overs per innings, I learnt to bowl within my capability. But in batting, I didn’t restrain myself. I think Yuvi must learn to adapt himself to Test cricket. When the going is good, he looks great but when he struggles, he looks pathetic. You can’t expect him to score centuries all the time, but he is capable of doing much better in Test matches
than he has done so far.’ The philosophy that Kapil Dev advocates is simple, but one must emphasize that to succeed at the top, that is, in Test cricket, one’s basic technique has to be impeccable.
What next for Yuvi, is the question. To get back to international cricket, he will have to be hundred per cent fit and play consistently well in domestic tournaments. No selection committee will risk selecting a player on past performance, especially while he is recovering from a serious illness. Renowned sports psychologist Dr Rudi Webster, who handled the West Indies team in their heyday, says, ‘Yuvi is now on the road to recovery following his successful chemotherapy sessions in the US. His recovery will not be all smooth sailing. He will have his ups and downs, and will have to deal with testing emotional challenges because recovery hardly ever follows a straight and steady path.
‘Yuvraj’s mental state will be critical in his healing because the proper use of his mind will enable him to stimulate the healing powers that are already within him. For centuries, yogis have been telling us about these powers. Today, two new fields of science substantiate their claims – signal transduction and epigenetics. These fields have shown how our mind and the perception of our environment can select, modify and regulate the activity of our genes and the fate of the trillions of cells in our body, particularly their function, survival and even their death. They have shown how our genes are constantly being remoulded by life’s experiences and by our perception and interpretation of those experiences.
‘Yuvraj will change the path and trajectory of his recovery if he changes his outlook and gets rid of the limiting beliefs and the negative thoughts and pictures that come to the fore in situations like his. The thoughts and pictures that he imprints in his mind today will determine what he becomes tomorrow.
‘He should also build a positive and supportive network of friends and supporters to help him create the right healing environment with humour, laughter, cheerfulness being a part of it.
‘Instead of focussing on what has been and on what he fears, he should concentrate on what he wants to see happen and what he wants to become. Every day, he should create and constantly replay images of himself as a healthy, kind and loving person. And he should imagine himself representing his country again with distinction. The more he replays these images, the quicker he will heal. His brain will not just create these images; it will do everything in its power to make them a reality.’
Once you start playing international cricket, there is a fine line between natural ability and technique. If one has the basics in place, one’s natural abilities will help to combat difficult situations. Yuvraj Singh, like many other natural stroke players, is a treat to watch when he in the zone, but he has shown himself to be inadequate when it comes to technical perfection.
Chapter Seven
CLIMBING THE PEAK
For four years, Rafael Nadal remained the second-best tennis player in the world. For four long years, he tried his best to upset Roger Federer, the World No. 1, from his position, but he couldn’t. Then one fine Wimbledon afternoon, Nadal rose and shone and there he was, the champion. Finally.
How did it happen? What did Nadal do this time that changed the course of his life? What inspired him to perform so brilliantly? Will we ever know what brought it about?
Similarly, how do we try and understand what triggered that sparkling performance from Yuvraj Singh when he almost single-handedly took India to victory in the World Cup in 2011? What was it that made someone who had been playing for India for a decade, and had been a part of three World Cups and numerous other World Championships, click at just the right moment?
There was enormous pressure as the tournament was being held at home and India’s reputation was at stake. But right from the start of the tournament, Yuvi had seemed different from his usual self. The restlessness was missing. There was an air of tranquillity about him. He was calm and confident, as if he had suddenly become a mature and thinking player, who would play percentage cricket after reading the situation. He seemed to have realized that bowlers did not step on to the ground to allow batsmen to take liberties with them.
Besides, this was a golden opportunity for him to silence his detractors. Did he want to prove something to them, to all those who had been critical of him, accusing him of concentrating more on off-the-field activities than his performance on the ground? Was that his motivation? All Yuvi said was that he wanted to win the World Cup for one special person. Was it for Sachin Tendulkar that Yuvi gave his all? Or had Yuvi realized his past mistakes and was desirous of correcting them? Was there something more to the story that we don’t know? What made Yuvi so confident of winning the World Cup?
Positive thinking is often evident in good players before big events, but being so completely self-assured is a different thing. It speaks of something else. An inner struggle or an inner realization, perhaps. Analysts of the game can offer conjectures, fans can make predictions and the media can sensationalize events as much as they like, but they cannot provide the truth. Only an insider who knows the player and the situation can explain such a turnaround. And one such person is Ranjib Biswal, manager of the Indian team. He and Ramji Srinivasan, who trained the team, enjoyed a close relationship with the players and were privy to what went on in the dressing room.
Ranjib Biswal had captained the India U-19 team in 1988–89 in four Test matches against Pakistan in India. He went on to become an administrator and is currently President of the Odisha Cricket Association. As a national selector, Biswal represented East Zone and served under Kiran More, Dilip Vengsarkar and K. Srikkanth. In 2006, he was appointed manager of the Indian team for a tour of the West Indies.
Biswal explained that his relationship with the players was not limited to his managerial role. ‘The whole team was like a family,’ he says.
Biswal had watched Yuvi closely before and during the World Cup. In fact, he has followed Yuvi’s career over the last five years and is in the best position to comment on his state of mind at the time and to provide some insights into the enigma that is Yuvraj Singh.
In 2011 the stage was set for the biggest tournament ever: the World Cup. Cricket was back in the prime-time slot on most news channels. The high decibel levels of the anchors in TV studios matched the excitement of fans outside. The question on all lips was, ‘Will India do it this time?’ The emphasis was undoubtedly on ‘this time’. Every five minutes, a photograph of Kapil Dev in the balcony at Lord’s, celebrating the 1983 win, appeared on the screen with some competition from images of the 2007 T20 win.
Prayers, discussions, debates, speculation, the country had done it all. Finally, satisfied that they had played their part and sung enough songs, painted their faces suitably and drunk adequate quantities of sponsored cold drinks for the team to be motivated, they sat back and waited for the payback from their millionaire cricketers.
In the dressing room, the atmosphere was more tense than anyone could imagine. Here were the fifteen players who actually had to slog it out and fulfil the expectations of a billion fans, turn their dream into reality by winning the World Cup. They had to overpower fourteen international teams before they could hold the Cup in their hands. And only one of the over 200 internationally admired players would be declared Man of the Tournament.
India won the Cup, and an Indian cricketer was awarded the most coveted prize. Who would have thought that he had played the entire series with a deadly cancer growing in his system?
Manager Ranjib Biswal clearly remembers noticing that something was wrong with Yuvi’s health during the World Cup. ’But since we are not doctors, we did not know how seriously to take it,’ he says. ‘He was falling sick on and off. He felt nauseous and vomited frequently. Sometimes he used to get breathless. He complained of a stiffineck. But the physio was taking care of him, and no one thought it was a serious illness. We thought he should get a proper check-up after the World Cup was over. In fact, I remember N. Srinivasan, who was then secretary and now president of the BC
CI, telling me that after the World Cup Yuvi needed to get a complete check-up done because he was clearly not well. No one ever thought that it would be cancer.’
The World Cup stretched over fifty-six days but since there were four or five days off between matches, Yuvi managed to recover in time for each match. ‘During the World Cup, we tried to manage his physical fitness with the help of physios so that he would not break down in the middle of the series,’ Biswal says.
In the early phases of his career, illness and injury would set Yuvi back for quite a long time. But this time, sickness didn’t deter him at all. It was as if his poisoned insides were giving him greater inspiration and pressed him to try harder. ‘One thing I noticed about Yuvi in this World Cup was that he was more determined. I think it was because he was coming back after a poor series in South Africa and Sri Lanka. His place in the team was being challenged by Raina and Jadeja. That pressure was enough to get him motivated. He spent long hours in the nets, bowling and then working on his fielding with the coach. Even when there was optional practice, Yuvi would be present. And slowly, after the first match, he started doing well. He started concentrating more on his bowling as well. Gary Kirsten and the others were supportive of him because everyone knew that if Yuvi clicked, it was going to be much easier for us to win the World Cup.’
Yuvi’s skills as a bowler had long been recognized and he was called upon regularly, at least in One-day Internationals. He was used quite extensively in the latter half of the series against Sri Lanka in July 2010. Before the World Cup, Yuvi took up bowling very seriously. He knew he was a key member of the team, an all-rounder who had to contribute with both bat and ball. The game-plan for the World Cup had been chalked out well in advance. ‘And Yuvi was the right choice to fit the number six slot as an all-rounder,’ says Biswal. ‘He already had a tremendous ability with the bat; his bowling became an added advantage.’
Yuvi Page 7
