Former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh recalled how Sachin Tendulkar’s advice helped them go all the way in the 2011 World Cup. After losing against South Africa, the Indian team was heavily criticized by the media.
However, Tendulkar advised the team to stay away from watching TV and not read the newspapers. India was able to bounce back from that loss and went on to clinch their second World Cup title.
Speaking to the Week, Yuvraj Singh said, “We were trying to focus on the game, and in the World Cup, we had lost to South Africa – a game we should have won. The media started to go berserk. Sachin sat down with the team and said, ‘We need to stop watching television, stop reading the papers. Use our headphones when we are going through crowds in airports. Just focus on the World Cup’. The team agreed, we just followed that and it really worked.”
Yuvraj added there is always pressure while playing for the Indian team in the World Cup as the fans have huge expectations.
“Problem with India is that, people think only Indian team will win. It’s a big World Cup, there are so many good teams out there, and we got to be really focussed on your tasks at hand.”
India defeated Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup by six wickets in the final. Yuvraj Singh had played an instrumental role in the team’s success, scoring 362 runs and he also bagged a total of 15 wickets. Thus, he was awarded Player of the tournament for his consistent performances with both bat and ball.
Meanwhile, India has been in great form going into the World Cup as they have won six out of their last eight matches.
India will begin their World Cup campaign against Australia at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on 8th October.
India’s final World Cup 2023 squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah.
