A special Debut for Yuvraj Singh

[Ashok]

"Do anything you have to, even tread on the damn thing but don't let it get past," Greg Chappell's booming baritone bore down the pitch at Yuvraj Singh as he gave him throw-downs in the last net. Chappell had drawn Yuvraj aside, and was dealing with him one-on-one even as the rest of the team were put through their paces in the nets at the practice facility adjoining the main ground at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali.

"It's amazing what you can achieve if you get your energy moving forward. As long as you keep coming towards the ball you can always back yourself to get into a position to keep the ball down. It's when you stop that you might hit it in the air," exhorted Chappell, as Yuvraj crunched one brutal drive after another back towards his coach.

On Friday, Yuvraj plays his first ever one-dayer at his home ground. He grew up playing on this ground, made his Test debut here, but has never once had the pleasure of wearing his India blue in front of a home crowd that adores him. "You're right, it is quite surprising that I have been playing one-day cricket for so many years, have played all over the world, and yet never played here," Yuvraj told Cricinfo. "It will be a good feeling - my mother, father, friends, they'll all be there watching."

And you can bet there will be support, for Yuvraj has been under such pressure to hand out passes and tickets till late on the eve of the match, that the extra expectation of fans could play a factor. "Pressure is always there when you are playing international cricket," he said, laughing off the suggestion that it might actually be harder to play at home than away. "I know Chandigarh is my home town and I love the place, but when you are playing for India you don't think about that. It's not about home town, it about country."

But Yuvraj has been able to play a role, offering suggestions and local expertise to the captain and coach, something which could play a crucial part in the second one-dayer. "Greg was here for the Challenger Trophy, so he has a fair idea of the conditions. I don't need to tell him what it is like here. But I did have a chat with the captain, the coach, and some of the guys in the team and gave my inputs."

Chappell has believed for some time now that Yuvraj has it in him to become one of the batting mainstays of this team. In a few years, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly will all have moved along, leaving a gaping hole in the batting line-up. Yuvraj will then have to move to the next level, and shoulder more responsibility. "I have been working on a lot of things, and I don't really want to go into that in detail," he added. "But I can tell you that one thing we have been paying special attention to is footwork."

When you suggest to him that he should perhaps refrain from sweeping against the spinners, as it is a shot that he does not play especially well, and that the percentages may be against him, he gets a touch irritated. "There's no point saying I should not play the sweep just because I get out a few times playing that shot. Don't forget I also score a lot of runs playing the sweep." The way he plays in the V, with a long stride forward or a deep step back, you wonder why he needs to resort to the sweep. "You can't just play the same shot each time," he said. "If you do, the bowlers sort you out and start bowling a different line. You have to mix things up."

Yuvraj has begun to show the consistency people have been asking of him over the last few years. Yet his game and attitude are constantly questioned by the media and public who mistake his confident swagger for arrogance and a lack of hard work. In the last match, when he was dodgily adjudged lbw for 14, a television channel dubbed him Match ka mujrim [Culprit of the match] in a show that can only be described as disgusting.

On the eve of the second one-dayer, one journalist asked Dravid about Yuvraj's "failure" and his "lack of consistency." Dravid, slightly taken aback by the question, retorted: "He's a very good player, and he's won matches for India with bat, ball and on the field. He's just got one low score in a match where we've played after a month. He came out to bat when we needed to score quickly. In just the last series we played he got a hundred. It's unfair, very unfair, to talk about his record," ended Dravid, visibly ticked off, glaring at the journalist who asked the question.

Yuvraj himself smiles off such criticism. His captain, coach and team know how good he is. And most importantly, Yuvraj himself knows, and this shows in the way he expresses himself with a bat in hand.