"Yuvraj Singh's role in 2011 World Cup win under-shown...does not have good PR agency": Gautam Gambhir
Dec 09, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 9 : Former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir has said that former all-rounder Yuvraj Singh has not got due credit for his role in India winning the World Cup in 2011.
The swashbuckling southpaw scored 362 runs and bagged 15 wickets in the 2011 World Cup. He won four 'Player of the Match' awards, the same number that Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva won in 1996, South Africa's Lance Klusener in 1999 and compatriot Rohit Sharma in 2019.
"You know it. You please tell me that one player Yuvraj Singh who was Man of the Tournament in 2011, how many people talk about him. Why? Probably he does not have a good PR agency. Probably this word 'underrated' is a very unfair word. It is actually under-shown, if you won't show the people, then they won't know and you keep showing one person, then he will become a brand," Gautam Gambhir said in 'ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash'.
Gautam Gambhir, who scored 97 in the ICC World Cup 2011 final, believes that if one person is shown all the time and the others are under-shown, then only one person will get all the limelight and the other person will not get the credit he deserves.
"If today I have machinery and I have to pick two persons where I show one person for two hours and fifty minutes and the other person for 10 minutes only, then a person shown for 2 hours and 50 minutes will become a brand. Then don't say that we do not get numbers when we show the other guy because the other guy is not a brand. When you did not show the other person, you did not value the other person. Unless you do not value the other person, he won't value himself and how will the country value him. In this World Cup, one good thing happened and I am pleased about it that we became a bowling-obsessed nation from batting one. Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj are getting appreciated for their hard work," Gambhir said.
Gambhir has played 58 Tests for India, scoring 4,154 runs at an average of 41.95. He scored nine centuries and 22 fifties in his Test career in 104 innings, with the best score of 206.
He is the only Indian to score a century in five successive Test matches between March 2009 to April 2010.
He also won the ICC Test Player of the Year Award in 2009. Between 2008 and 2009, in 13 Tests, he made 1,861 runs at an average of 77.54 in 25 innings, with the best score of 206 and seven centuries and seven fifties.
In 147 ODI matches, he has scored 5,238 runs at an average of 39.68, 11 centuries and 34 fifties, with the best score of 150*. He is the 13th-highest scorer in ODIs for India.
In 37 T20Is, Gambhir scored 932 runs at an average of 27.41 and a strike rate of over 119. He scored seven fifties, with the best score of 75.
