Yuvraj

Hyderabad: The gap between his potential and performance is yet to be bridged but Yuvraj Singh is convinced that he has banished the gremlins that crept into his batting and asserts he is ready to prove that he belongs to the traditional version of the game as well.

Here as the captain of Board President’s XI, which takes on Ricky Ponting’s Australia for the warm-up match starting Thursday, Yuvraj admitted he had issues with his batting but claimed he had sorted them out.

“This match is a great opportunity for me. There were some flaws in my batting but I have worked those out,” Yuvraj said, on the eve of the four-day match.

Asked if he wanted to send any message to the selectors with a strong performance here, the elegant left-hander said: “I’ll be proving a point to myself, rather than proving a point to others. Every time you go out there you want to show you belong.”

“Selection is not in my hands but I’m pretty confident of getting my form back. Hope I have a good game here,” added the dashing Punjab batsman, who could not find a place in the Indian team for the first two Tests against Australia starting October 9 in Bangalore.

According to him, he has not done very badly in the last two years but it’s only in the last four months that things didn’t go, as he would have liked.

“I just want to set things in order as early as possible,” he said.

He feels the match is equally important for all players, for a strong performance here could fetch the ultimate reward in the form of a berth in the Indian side.

“It is a really big match for us and tomorrow (Thursday) the guys will all be geared up for the game,” he said.

Apart from S. Sreesanth, the entire Board President’s XI squad is here.

“Sree is not match fit yet,” Yuvraj informed.

Asked how he felt leading the side after having captained the Punjab Kings XI in the Indian Premier League, Yuvraj said: “It really feels good and I hope this experience of leading against a full-fledged Australian team would stand me in good stead.”

Even as Yuvraj and his teammates sweated it out in the nets here, most of them had something else in their mind as the selectors in Mumbai announced the Indian team for the first two Tests against Australia.