Yuvraj Singh expected to lead India in 2007 T20 World Cup before MS Dhoni's appointment

Legendary Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh has revealed that he was optimistic about being named as Team India’s captain for the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup. However, the selectors took the decision of appointing MS Dhoni as the skipper instead. Yuvraj took the announcement in a positive manner, stepping up with incredible performances. His gameplay played a crucial role in helping Team India win the tournament. India had earlier been knocked out of the 2007 World Cup in the group stage.

“So, basically, India had lost the 50-over World Cup, right? I mean there was quite a lot of turmoil in Indian cricket and then there was a two-month tour of England and there was also a month-long tour in between with South Africa and Ireland. And then there was a month of T20 World Cup so there were like four months away from home,” said Yuvraj in the ’22 Yarns’ podcast as quoted by India Today

“So probably the seniors thought that they needed a break and obviously, nobody took the T20 World Cup seriously. I was expecting to captain India in the T20 World Cup and then it was announced MS Dhoni would be the captain. Yes, obviously, whoever becomes captain you got to support that guy, whether it was Rahul (Dravid), whether it was (Sourav) Ganguly, whoever in the future, at the end of the day you want to be a team man and that’s how I was. So, anyway, the seniors took a rest – (Sourav) Ganguly, (Rahul) Dravid, Sachin (Tendulkar). Zak (Zaheer Khan) says ‘I also should take a rest, it has been a long tour’. I remember the first game was between West Indies and South Africa, right? And Chris Gayle hit a hundred off 50-55 balls. So Zak sends me a message in the night and he goes ‘Thank God! I rested for this tournament’, and when we won the tournament he said ‘Oh no! I shouldn’t have rested’,” he added.

“Don’t think we had too much of a strategy”

Yuvraj admitted that the Indian team did not go into the tournament with a lot of strategies in place.

“We were a young team. We didn’t have an international coach or really big names. Lalchand Rajput was our coach and I think Venkatesh Prasad was our bowling coach and we were just a young team under a young captain which just landed in South Africa. I don’t think we had too much of a strategy. No one had a clue about T20 strategies because it was the first tournament. So we thought ‘Let’s just go and play the way you know’,” he concluded.