March 29, 2004, was the day that Virender Sehwag became the first Indian to score a triple-century in Test cricket. But what took away the thunder from his blistering innings was skipper Rahul Dravid’s decision to declare, with the score at 675 and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar batting on 194.
Yuvraj Singh was at the centre of the field, batting alongside Tendulkar. “We got a message in between that we had to play fast, and we were going to declare,” Yuvraj recalls in an exclusive interaction on Home of Heroes, Sports18’s newest offering.
Yuvraj reached his maiden Test fifty but soon after, he got out and Dravid declared with Tendulkar stranded on 194, six runs short of his double ton. “He could have got those six runs in another over and we bowled 8-10 overs after that. I do not think another two overs would have made a difference to the Test match,” says Yuvraj who witnessed Tendulkar’s disappointment at Dravid’s call from close quarters.
“If it was the third or the fourth day, you have to put the team first and they would have declared when you were at 150. There is a difference of opinion. I think the team could have declared after his 200,” he star all-rounder added.
Yuvraj went on to score a century in the next Test at Lahore, notching over 200 runs with an impressive average of 57.50 in the three-Test series. But he never made his mark in Tests. Despite piling up 26 First Class centuries, Yuvraj feels he did not get a long rope in Test cricket.
“If you compare that era to today’s era, you can see players getting 10-15 matches,” Yuvraj said, explaining the middle order was very strong then. “You look at that era, you could open like the way Viru started it. After that Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, and Laxman. I got a hundred in Lahore and in the next Test I was told to open.”
Yuvraj, though, admitted that on many occasions he did not convert the 60s to hundreds which restricted his Test career to just 40 games. “Eventually, when I got opportunities to play Test cricket after Dada’s retirement, I got diagnosed with cancer,” says Yuvraj.
“It has just been bad luck. I tried 24x7. I wanted to play 100 Test matches, face those fast bowlers, and bat for two days. I gave it everything, but it was not meant to be,” he concluded.