Yuvi non-inclusion sad, says Kumble

At the hustings today, or the bout, if you may, experience eventually won and hence Yuvraj Singh, India’s most prolific and consistent scorer for the past year, will sit out the first Test. India will opt for their old warhorses yet again.

“It is unfortunate that a player like Yuvraj does not have a permanent place in the Test squad. It is tough, but that’s the way things are,” was the reply that new skipper Anil Kumble gave when asked about the south paws chances of playing tomorrow.

Attending his first press conference as a captain one would have thought that Kumble would have probably wanted to avoid the issue rather he went straight for the point.

“He’s shown tremendous form and his quality is really important for Indian cricket. Moving forward, he’ll have to probably wait a little bit more to become a regular member in the Test squad. It’s unfortunate with the circumstances that we have for this game.

“That’s the way it is. He’s a great player and I’m sure the Indian team’s batting will revolve around him very soon,” and after he pretty much made it clear that it may still be a while that we may see Yuvraj don the while flannels for India.

One, of course, has to note here that Yuvaraj last played a Test on June 30, 2006, versus the West Indies, and he scored 19 and 13 in the Test prior to that he had made an unbeaten 8.

Injury after that, while playing kho-kho in Mohali, pushed him out of the squad. He has made a solid comeback to the one-day side since, with prolific scoring, but has not been able to make it to the tests. Interestingly, though, Yuvraj’s two hundreds have been versus Pakistan in 2004 and 2006.

Yuvarj’s exclusion may have come as good news for VVS Laxman, whose place was in threat of being given to the Punjab batsman, but it also meant that they will have to perform well in the coming matches.

“If you play any sport you will have to be at the top of your game, and I think that it’s a healthy competition,” said Kumble.

On the other front Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik – he had said before coming to India that Yuvraj and RP Singh were going to be the players that the Pakistanis were going to have to watch out for — seemed unperturbed by the recent changes and stated that: “Those comments were made for the ODI’s and Tests is a whole new area, but in the end India’s strength will always be their batting,” was the visiting skippers views on Yuvraj’s non-inclusion.