Yuvraj Singh also spoke on his convo with Andrew Flintoff before hitting Stuart Broad for 6 sixes.
During a chat on the Club Prairie podcast, Yuvraj Singh was put in a spot by former Australia cricketer Adam Gilchrist and ex-England captain Michael Vaughan. Halfway through the chat, Yuvraj was quizzed on whom he would start, bench, and drop from the iconic trio of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and MS Dhoni.
When questioned about his captaincy preference, Yuvraj chose current India captain Rohit over long-time India teammate Dhoni, with whom he helped the Men in Blue win the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 ICC World Cup.
“As a player, I would go for Rohit Sharma if it’s T20 cricket. He is an outstanding captain and someone who can change the game with his batting for sure, he will be my first choice,” replied Yuvraj Singh.
Yuvraj, on the other hand, avoided answering the question about whether to bench or drop Kohli and Dhoni.
“I would bench myself as naming one between Virat and Dhoni would be in the headlines. I don’t want that to happen. We’re all smart enough, we know who needs to go on the bench but I’m going to stick to Rohit Sharma’s name,” Yuvraj added.
Yuvraj also recalled his heated exchange with Andrew Flintoff in Durban during the 2007 T20 World Cup, which followed what is perhaps the flamboyant southpaw's most famous moment - blasting rookie pacer Stuart Broad for six sixes soon after.
“Freddie (Flintoff) bowled two good balls — a length ball that didn’t hit the middle of my bat but went for a boundary, then he bowled a really good yorker that I was able to hit over point. I took a single off the last ball and he went after me saying ‘f… shit shots’ and I was like ‘I am sorry’ and he repeated that again in my face. I walked towards him and he kind of spat at me.
I said ‘Do you see this bat in my hand, do you know where it’s going to go’. It went worse after that and that’s when the umpire came in and when I hit Freddie for one six, I enjoyed that more than the six sixes,” the 42-year-old said.
Yuvraj claimed that being hammered for five sixes in an over by all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas during India's ODI tour of England just before the T20 World Cup, in addition to Flintoff's statements, encouraged him to smash Broad for six sixes.
“I remember I got hit for five sixes against Dimitri (Mascarenhas) in one of the one-day games. I don’t know why Rahul Dravid gave me the last over to bowl because all our fast bowlers were getting thumped at the Oval. I bowled the 48th over for two runs and he gave me the 50th over and Dimitri hit me for five sixes.
And when I hit the fifth six, Dimitri was at deep mid-wicket and I looked at him and smiled and I was like ‘That’s equal now and the last one is for me’,” Yuvraj added.
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