MS Dhoni started his journey as an Indian captain in the historic ICC World T20 triumph in 2007. While his captaincy made headlines, it had left the all-rounder Yuvraj Singh surprised as he was expecting to lead the team as well.
The team faced a huge blow that year when the Rahul Dravid-led side failed to cross the group stage in the 2007 ODI World Cup. And, the veteran players like Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, etc. decided to skip the World T20, which made way for MS Dhoni to take up the captaincy duty. On the other hand, Yuvraj Singh had also played a crucial role as India lifted the trophy by beating Pakistan in the final as well.
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“So, basically, India had lost the 50-over World Cup, right? I mean there was quite a turmoil in Indian cricket and then there was a two-month tour of England and there was also a month 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. So probably the seniors thought that they need 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 will be the captain,” Yuvraj Singh has said on the 22 Yarns podcast.
However, the captaincy snub didn’t affect the relationship between Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni and the two have been seen sharing a good bond too.
“Yes, obviously, whoever becomes captain you got to support that guy whether it was Rahul, whether it was [Sourav] Ganguly, whoever in the future, end of the day you want to be a team man and that’s how I was,” Yuvraj Singh further added.
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However, they both stitched several memorable partnerships in the middle-order for India for a long time and who can forget their contributions in India’s 2011 World Cup triumph? While Yuvraj Singh had smashed Stuart Broad for 6 sixes in an over in the 2007 World T20, it was Dhoni who batted at the non-striker’s end at that time. However, both of them have announced their retirements in 2019 and 2020 as well.
