Patil ducks questions on Dhoni and Yuvraj’s World Cup chances
Sandeep Patil, who was hailed as one of India’s finest hardhitting middle order batsmen before he went on to become a coach and Indian team chief selector, is as dashing as his batting style when speaking on cricketing matters. He opened up on some of the news relating to the Indian team that has made headlines recently while in Dubai in a new role as brand ambassador of India’s indoor cricket teams that are playing in the ongoing World Indoor Cricket Federation World Cup.
Asked whether Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh will go on to play the 2019 World Cup, Patil replied: “It’s wrong to predict who all will go on to play in the 2019 World Cup. Two years from now is a long period and the kind of injuries we see nowadays, there is too much of workload on each player. What matters today is fitness and form. Yuvraj is God’s gift and I will always remain an ardent fan of Yuvraj, but he has to put runs on the board and prove his fitness. He has to be looked after by the professionals who are working with the Indian team. So it will be wrong to say what is going to happen to Dhoni and Yuvraj, and even others.”
Patil also said he does not believe in comparing top cricketers like Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. “It is difficult to say what is the difference between [Sunil] Gavaskar and Tendulkar and the difference between Tendulkar and Kohli or Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They are all special. We should be proud that we had players like Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S. Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. They are champions of the era and I consider myself lucky to have got a chance to be with them as India A team coach, as India team coach and director of National Cricket Academy.”
Patil, who once smashed England pacer Bob Willis for six boundaries in one over and even took on pacers like Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson to crack centuries in Australia, was modest when asked how he felt about being a genuine hard hitter in the Indian team at a time when there were few of his ilk around. “When you don’t have a technique, you throw the bat at the ball. I was lucky that I succeeded by throwing the bat at the ball and got a few runs. I don’t like to compare but today there is tremendous improvement in focus and awareness than the cricket in sixties and eighties.”