Sports India

aggregate of 1161 one-day runs in the last one year and three Man of the Series awards - Yuvraj Singh has finally arrived after his initial years of promise.

However, he is not exactly happy at the moment since his Test form was not as expected in the West Indies.

As a new season begins with the tri-series in Sri Lanka next month, ‘Yuvi’ wants to set the record straight so that he can continue to be a potent force in both form of the games. Excerpts from the interview:

GULF NEWS: Another tour to Sri Lanka is on the cards. It was from there last season that your purple patch begun. How does it feel after a great year?

Yuvraj: I am happy with what I have done in the one-dayers, but I believe I should have done better in Tests. I tried my best, but there are still a few more things to be done in Tests to make my mark.

What are your expectations from the tour of Sri Lanka?

We really played well in one-dayers in the last one year. We had done well despite the slower wickets of the West Indies and in Sri Lanka too, the wickets should be of similar nature.

We shall be having two conditioning camps before the tri-series and hope to carry on the good work.

While you had a reasonably successful one-day series against the Windies with 183 runs, India had lost the series 1-4.

That is why in a team game, the most important thing is the team’s win. You may perform individually, but the whole team’s showing is far more important. However, I feel we were really unlucky to lose the four close matches on trot.

In the second match, you were out when the team needed just one run to tie the match.

I just could not sleep that night. Dwayne Bravo had chosen the right moment to deliver that killing blow at the right place and time. What a slower it was!

I was batting on 93 and could not believe I could be out without winning the game.

Indians were expected to do better in the Test series, but you could only win the last Test for a narrow series win.

I feel we should have won at least one, if not two more Tests. We were sitting pretty from where we should have won the Test, but we could not capitalise on it. We will have to convert the near-things on more occasions in future.

Your team did not chase a feasible target in the second Test, closing the shutters as soon as Dhoni departed.

Rahul told me to go easy since I was not hitting the ball well and we did not want to risk it. To lose a Test is not worth it, especially when you have the option of drawing it.

If I were hitting the ball as sweetly as I am used to, we would have gone for it. Our intentions were clear: we tried by promoting Dhoni who wanted to go after the bowling.

If he had succeeded, the story would have been different.