Yuvraj Singh
India’s chances in the Champions Trophy have been dealt a big blow as their star batsman Yuvraj Singh has been declared unfit for the tournament and will be returning back home. Yuvraj Singh had been hit by a ball on his finger and could bat, bowl or field for the rest of the session. He was later taken for X-rays and it was found that he had had a fracture. This has ruled him out of cricket for a period of six weeks till the fracture heals, and that means that the vice-captain of the side will not play in this tournament and may be missing for the seven ODI match series against the Australians as well.
This is not the first time that Yuvraj Singh has been declared unfit to play before the Champions Trophy. In the previous edition which was played in India, Yuvraj had hurt his knee while playing kho-kho before the tournament under the auspices of the coach, Greg Chappell, and he not only missed the tournament, but also the following tour to Australia. At that time, the coach and the coaching staff had come in for a lot of criticism over the use of other sports for practice. Only recently, Joe Denly had also injured his knee which playing soccer in a warm-up session before the seven match series against Australia and there had been many questions asked from Andrew Strauss. England had gone on to lose the series 6-1.
Gautam Gambhir has been declared the vice-captain, but there had been many questions asked of his fitness as well before being declared fit on Wednesday. He had missed out on the Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka when he had strained his groin before the tournament. In essence, there are many Indian cricketers who have been injured in the last few months including Gambhir, Yuvraj, Sehwag and Zaheer, which has left a gaping hole in the Indian middle order. With this latest Yuvraj injury, there is a chance that the middle order will be left exposed by the opposition.
Contrastingly, the Pakistani captain Younus Khan was declared fit for the game against India after he had been diagnosed with a hairline fracture as well. He had missed out on the West Indies game as a precautionary measure, but will make a comeback into the side against India. The two teams will meet on Saturday in a day night game at the Centurion.
