India's two time World Cup winning hero, Yuvraj Singh has said that he had expected to be the team's captain in the 2007 T20 World Cup. While speaking in the '22 Yarns' podcast with Gaurav Kapur, Yuvraj shared how senior cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Rahul Dravid’s decision to opt out of the tournament has given risen to the hopes of being named India captain. "So, basically, India had lost the 50-over World Cup, right? I mean there was quite a turmoil in Indian cricket and then there was a two-month tour of England and there was also a month tour in between with South Africa and Ireland. And then there was a month of T20 World Cup so there were like four months away from home. So probably the seniors thought that they need a break and obviously, nobody took the T20 World Cup seriously. I was expecting to captain India in the T20 World Cup and then it was announced MS Dhoni will be the captain," Yuvraj Singh said.
"Yes, obviously, whoever becomes captain you got to support that guy, whether it was Rahul (Dravid), whether it was (Sourav) Ganguly, whoever in the future, at the end of the day you want to be a team man and that's how I was," he said. "We were a young team. We didn't have an international coach or really big names. Lalchand Rajput was our coach and I think Venkatesh Prasad was our bowling coach and we were just a young team under a young captain which just landed in South Africa. I don't think we had too much of a strategy. No one had a clue about T20 strategies because it was the first tournament. So we thought 'Let's just go and play the way you know'," said Yuvraj. . Against all odds, India went on to win the T20 World Cup. The tournament marked the first time that MS Dhoni captained India and Yuvraj's explosive performances with the bat was instrumental in India's success in the tournament. Yuvraj, who retired from international cricket in June 2019, never captained India, not even for a single match. One of the greatest limited over players to play for India, Yuvraj was particularly noted for his aggressive stroke play of the ball and his fielding.
