Yuvraj Singh is India's greatest match-winner - Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir

Despite Yuvraj Singh’s poor run of form, of late, out-of-favour Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has said that Yuvraj deserves every bit of what he received in the IPL 7 auctions from Royal Challengers Bangalore; RCB won a fierce bidding war for the services of the two-time World Cup winner, beating Gambhir’s Kolkata knight Riders by shelling out Rs 14 crores.

Labelling him as India’s ‘greatest match-winner till date’, Gambhir dismissed suggestions that Yuvraj was solely responsible for India’s 2014 World Cup T20 final loss against the Sri Lankans at Dhaka.

The 32-year-old southpaw, speaking in an event organised by ‘Advanced Hair Studio’, said: “At the IPL auctions, we were really close to getting him before RCB won the bid. Let me put it this way. Had there been auction today, the Kolkata Knight Riders would have bid for him in the same aggressive manner. Yuvraj according to me is our greatest match-winner till date.”

When asked if the Indian team is over-dependent on Virat Kohli, Gambhir stood by what he has been saying all along: “That’s never the case. Cricket is a team game and 11 players are out there in the field. The game is won by 11 players and lost by 11 players. It’s not an individual sport.”

On the criticisms directed at Yuvraj’s dismal batting performance in the finals, he said: “I don’t think any cricketer has criticised Yuvraj. It is the media which has attacked him and we need to be careful about what we say. He has been our greatest match-winners in limited overs cricket.”

When asked why KKR preferred to bid for Yuvraj and not for his Delhi team mate and ex-Indian international Virender Sehwag, Gambhir had this to say: “Well, it was a part of the strategy and the decision is taken by at least 5-6 people. We wanted Yuvi more and that’s why we bid for him.”