Yuvraj Singh: Sweeping Changes

Growing up under the eagle eye tutelage of his father Yograj,Yuvraj Singh followed a long list of dos.

Growing up under the eagle eye tutelage of his father Yograj,Yuvraj Singh followed a long list of dos. Swimming,weight training,10 miles of daily running,catching practice and all day net sessions. There was also one dont Yograj warned his son not to play the sweep shot. Wanting to impart a perfect technique to the lad,Yograj expected the strokes to be played with a straight bat. I would tell him to play his shots in the V,over mid-on,widish mid-on,covers,mid-wicket and mid-off. I would get very angry with him when he played any cross-bat shots, Yograj recalls.

And so,being the obedient son that he is,Yuvraj avoided the cardinal sin,at least in domestic cricket. As he ventured out into the international set-up though,things changed quite rapidly as Yuvraj plucked the forbidden fruit. Unable to resist the temptation of freeing his arms square on the leg side,Yuvraj also began playing the sweep. To his dismay though,he was rather unsuccessful in the effort.

While he was always at ease against the pacers,playing them with his back and front foot punches over the years,he seemed at sea against turn. In the early part of his career,Yuvraj got out quite often playing the sweep to the spinners,falling to lbw decisions and top edges. After one instance in Sri Lanka when he got out to the same shot,an infuriated Yograj trunk-called his son after the match and chastised him by saying,Aajkal aap zyada sweep shots khel rahe ho. You seem to be playing one too many sweeps these days.

As the story goes,Yuvraj later shared the rebuke he had received with his idol Sachin Tendulkar in the dressing room and asked him for a solution. Sachin insisted that he should not discard the shot from his armoury. He told the left-hander that he had lot of power in his shots and if he could work on his sweep,then he could tackle any spinner in the world. Yuvraj took his batting mentors suggestion to heart.

As a middle-order batsman,Yuvraj mainly marks his crease while the spinners are at play. While that was one of the big reasons to perfect the shot,Yuvraj focused doubly hard because India had plenty of tours to Sri Lanka lined up in the Future Tours Programme. And with his history of not being the greatest of batsmen against the sharp turn of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis,Yuvraj decided to employ the sweep to negate those tailor-made pitches. The powerful sweep,eventually became his get-out-of-jail stroke on many occasions.

Initially,I used to have a very limited range of strokes while playing turning deliveries, says Yuvraj. As I evolved as a batsman,I realised that with my height and reach,the sweep shot can be a very productive one. It took me some time before I could learn the real trick,and I had my share of failures when I started to play the sweep shot on a regular basis. But thankfully it worked out well after I worked hard over it, he says.

With the passage of time,Yuvrajs weakness transformed into one of his many strong points. I would say that learning the sweep shot was part of my growing up at the international stage. There are times when you want to re-discover your game. Certain players,teams and strategies challenge you as a batsman then you have to go back to basics and work on them. The shot used to get me out but now I feel it is more of a game-changing one.

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The change occurred during Englands last visit to India in 2008,something he feels was his watershed moment. I used the sweep shot quite well against Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann during the Chennai Test in 2008, says the man who scored an unbeaten 85,put on an unbroken partnership of 163 with mentor Tendulkar,to complete the fourth highest successful run chase in history and the highest in the India flannels.

With the powerful sweep shot fast becoming his ultimate weapon,the low and slow subcontinental pitches is sure to provide him the perfect opportunity during the World Cup to lay his nightmares to rest. As a middle-order batsman,my role in the team is flexible,depending more on the situation when I walk in to the crease. I might have to carry on the momentum or rebuild the innings. Most of the wickets are batsman-friendly and wont have much bounce. In my opinion,the sweep will be very useful, says Yuvraj.

But while Yuvraj now finds the shot indispensable,Yograj still has mixed feelings about his son playing the shot as often as he does I have a very different opinion about the sweep shot, he says. But when as great a legend as Sachin Tendulkar feels that it is essential for Yuvraj to develop his sweep,then there is no question of me coming up with arguments.

Achilles Heel: Corridor of Uncertainty

Like so many other stalwarts in the side,Yuvraj Singh has often succumbed to a good short-pitched ball outside off-stump. Time and again,when Yuvraj isnt pulled up for his weight issues and his attitude towards the game,the skillful left-hander is judged at his lack of patience against the rising ball. Just take the recently concluded series against South Africa for example. Soon after he arrived at the crease during a furious spell of fast bowling,Yuvraj decided to poke at a Morne Morkel snorter just outside off-stump,and his open blade soon paid the ultimate price at slips. It happened again in the final ODI at Centurion,when Yuvraj half-heartedly cut at a climbing Dale Steyn delivery one that had no room on it straight down the point fielders throat. While Yuvraj cannot look ugly with a bat in his hands,the bouncer usually makes it an exception exposing the weakest chink in the 29-year olds armour.