MS Dhoni: Yuvraj Singh's bowling potency got affected due to rule change

MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh after the 2011 World Cup final

There was a huge outcry when Yuvraj Singh, the Man of the Tournament during India’s successful World Cup campaign in 2011, was dropped in the current edition. There have been many baseless rumours flying around as to why the left-handed batsman was left out of the current squad, with many still believing that he had enough left in him for one more World Cup.

MS Dhoni has broken his silence for the first time on this matter.

Tough for Yuvraj to bowl with new rules, says Dhoni

Dhoni believes that the new fielding restrictions introduced by the ICC in late 2012 which mandate only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle have affected the potency of Yuvraj Singh as a genuine match-winner with the ball.

Speaking on the issue, the Ranchi-born cricketer said: "If you see, after the rules change happened, Yuvi didn't bowl a lot. We must admit that once the rule change happened, it did affect his bowling although he is a regular with the ball in T20s.”

Reflecting on the older rules which enabled part-timers to come and roll their arm over and squeeze in a few overs with a steady line, Dhoni further added, "In the pre-field restriction days, Viru, Sachin and Yuvi used to bowl a lot and we depended on them, but they were all part-timers and on good batting tracks, they would find it difficult to bowl well.”

“No comparison between Yuvraj and Raina”

India’s most successful ODI captain has dismissed any comparison between Suresh Raina and Yuvraj. He feels that they are different players with different skill sets and hence cannot be judged by the same yardstick.

"If you see Yuvi's career, he started at number 5 but as soon as he was doing well, he was batting at number 4. I guess from 2005 onwards, he has always batted at number 4 while Kaif was there at number 5 for some time and I also batted in that position. Now Raina bats at number 5 which is a key number in terms of the context of the game. So it will be difficult to compare Yuvi and Raina as their batting numbers were not similar," Dhoni said.

The 33-year-old also feels that 2015 has not been the World Cup for all-rounders.

"The all-rounders have not got a lot of chance during this World Cup. If you compare with a lot of all-rounders Yuvraj, Dwayne Bravo, who played key roles during the last World Cup are not playing this time. Also, an all-rounder needs to get a chance to bat between the 30th and 35th overs. That gives him a chance to score a 50 and also bowl a decent number of overs," he added.