Every Captain Has a Favourite Player, MS Dhoni Used to Back Suresh Raina: Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh has claimed that MS Dhoni‘s favourite player was Suresh Raina whom he backed during his rein as the India captain.

Yuvraj said with several in-form players ahead of the 2011 World Cup, the Indian team management was left with a selection headache.

“Suresh Raina had a larger support then, because MS (Dhoni) used to back him,” was quoted as saying by India Today. “Every captain has a favourite player and I think Mahi really backed Raina at that time.”

He continued, “Yusuf Pathan was also performing well at that time and even I was doing well and was also picking wickets. And Raina was not in a good touch then. They did not have a left-arm spinner at that time and I was picking wickets so they did not have any choice.”

Yuvraj has time and again stressed how much backing he got from another former India captain Sourav Ganguly under whom he made his international debut. Naturally, he picked out the current BCCI president as his favourite captain despite having played under the likes of Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, Virat kohli among others.

“Sourav Ganguly would be my favourite captain,” Yuvraj said. “Of all the India captains, he had supported me the most. Dada nurtured young talent. He had said then that he felt like there were 4-5 boys who would help him make the team strong and he supported all of them.”

Yuvraj also revealed that he used to tease Ganguly for his dressing sense saying it didn’t suit his stature as India captain. “We were not impressed with Dada at all. He was the India captain, such a big name. So I was like, Dada please, you are India captain, you can not dress up like that. But Dad was like, let it be, how does it matter,” he recalled.