I don't think about captaincy while batting, says Yuvraj

[gaurav92]

He comes in with a bandaged finger, putting it into the ice-old water. "Let’s make it clear, I won’t talk for more than five minutes," he says. There’s an arrogance in every move that Yuvraj Singh makes. Even while talking, the phone rings and he attends to the calls. Piyush Chawla comes in to meet him, and Yuvi, while talking to his teammate, says, "Why don’t you carry on with your questions?" Well, that’s Yuvraj for you. And you can’t but rationalise that this is probably the arrogance of talent. Amidst all this, he does talk for a while. Excerpts: You’re in Durban. Are you being reminded of the six sixes? All the time, right from the moment I came in. It feels good that people in Durban associate me with those sixes...that was a phenomenal moment. Do you think that is something you can do again? In cricket, anything can happen, but it’s difficult. At the end of the day, six sixes have been hit only four times. But then, records are meant to be broken, I am sure somebody else will hit it, if not me. Is it possible in the IPL? Very much. This is the perfect format to go for your shots, not really caring much about what’s going to happen next. Who knows, there will be somebody who comes up with the goods in this tournament only. But don’t you think the wickets this time are slower? The wickets are slow and they are offering turn. The wickets for the World Cup were much better to bat on. The South African authorities knew the tournament was coming, they had prepared the wickets accordingly. Here, it has come all of a sudden and they hardly got the time. Moreover, it’s the *** end of the season and the wickets are really tired. Is captaincy a burden for a player like you? I don’t even think I’m the captain when I’m batting. I just go about my job the way I would have done if I was a normal player in the team. And captaincy is all about how the team members perform. If the results are coming, I’m a good captain, it’s as simple as that. Are you happy with the way you have batted? Not quite. First couple of games, I went in a little late and there was hardly any time. Then, when I batted higher in the order, things haven’t clicked the way they should have. But there’s time, we are winning, and I guess it’s just a matter of time before things fall into place. Playing on these pitches, do you have to make any technical adjustments? (Laughs) The only technical adjustment that you need to make in T20 cricket is to slog every ball you face. I don’t really care for technical adjustments. You look tired. Is the schedule a little too demanding? It is demanding. The travelling is too much coming towards the end of the season. Then, there’s the T20 World Cup coming up right after the IPL. Don’t know how much of a break we’ll get before that. Finally, how do you see Kings XI doing in this tournament? Things are falling into place after a couple of early hiccups. The batting has been decent, the bowlers have delivered, and most importantly, we have won a couple of pressure games. That’s a good sign and we can hope for better things to come.