India cricket team vice-captain and the World Cup winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh decided to excite the fans with a 40 minutes long Instagram live session where they spoke on various topics that made the cricket fans happy amid the lockdown.
The former all-rounder feels the current Indian cricket set up lacks strong role models claiming there are not many players, youngsters look up to apart from Virat and Rohit Sharma. The 2011 World Cup player of the tournament shared the difference between the atmosphere in the current India team and the famous Indian team of the 2000s when Yuvraj was a regular in the team. He feels the current seniors do not command much respect from the youngsters.
“When I came into the team or when you came into the team, our seniors were very disciplined. Obviously there was no social media so there were no distractions. There was a certain behavior that we boys had to carry, how they talk to people, how they talk to media. Because they were the ambassadors of the game and India,” Yuvraj mentioned.
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Yuvraj Singh feels the situation isn’t the same anymore. He said, “So that is what I had told you guys. After playing for India, you have to be more careful about your image. But I feel the third generation. There are only you two seniors, Virat and you, who are playing all the formats, rest of the guys are coming and going.”
Yuvraj added, “I just feel there are very fewer guys to look up to and I feel that a sense of respect towards seniors, that has become a thin line now. Koi bhee kisiko kuch bhee keh deta bhain.”
The Punjabi allrounder is among the best allrounders India has produced, commented on how the players he played with were attentive and cautious of what they did and how they behaved in public.
“I think juniors, because of social media, party scenes, these things, we could not even think about that in our time. Because we had that fear that if we do some mistake our senior will tell us that do not do this, this is not right,” he said.
Yuvraj also commented on the Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul incident on Koffee with Karan saying, “That incident could not have happened in our time.”
The Mumbai Indians skipper also talked on the same topic and shared information about the atmosphere in the current Inda team set up. He mentioned the atmosphere in the current team is “very light”.
“When I came into the team, there were so many seniors. I think I was the only youngster alongside Piyush Chawla and Suresh Raina. The atmosphere is light now. I keep talking to the youngsters, the five-six of them,” Sharma said.
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During the whole session, The Indian team deputy captain spoke on the time he spends with the youngsters in the Indian team setup wanting to guide them. Rohit Sharma wants to make sure the next generation learns from his mistakes and not waste the initial 7 to 8 years of their cricketing career.
Commenting on the mentality and mindset of the upcoming future generation of cricketers, Yuvraj Singh expressed his opinions. He believes most of the players want to play white-ball cricket and focus more on the limited-overs format.
“Sachin paaji told me once ‘if you perform on field, everything else will follow’. I was at NCA once and I interacted with the younger lot. I felt most of them did not want to play Test cricket which is real cricket. They are happy playing one-day cricket. I feel even the players who have already played for India should play domestic cricket when they are not on national duty. It would give them valuable experience of playing on different surfaces around the country,” Yuvraj said.
