Yuvraj can just go and express himself batting at No.5: Dhoni

The swashbuckling left-hander, who got his first chance with the bat in the series at the SCG, looked out of touch initially struggling with his timing and scoring only five off nine balls when the asking rate was climbing high. However, Yuvraj returned to his best in the last over and within two balls – a four and a six – he changed the game in India’s favour to help register a whitewash against the Aussies.

The Indian captain seemed happy with the performance of Yuvraj and talked about the balance the left-hander brings to the batting lineup in the post-match press conference.

“I think we have the right mix. Also, Yuvraj can just go and express himself batting at No 5. There will be less pressure on him and as he plays more and more games he will just open up more. I have never believed in a set batting order and according to situations and bowlers, we might need to create a gap in between the two left-handed batsmen (Yuvraj and Suresh Raina). At the moment, this seems like what will be a very good batting line-up,” the skipper said.

Dhoni also showered praise on his former Chennai Super Kings teammate Suresh Raina, who played a vital part in the chase by scoring 49 off 25 balls and a last ball boundary when two runs were needed off the ball.

“To an extent, we are rewarding IPL performances. Raina has scored the most number of runs at No 3 for eight IPL seasons now, and at the same time in one of the World T20s he batted at No 3 for us and he got the hundred too. But there were others who could also do a similar job in that slot but there was no one else who could bat at numbers 5 or 6,” Dhoni said.

The Indian team, who also became the No.1 side in the ICC World T20 rankings after the series victory, now head home for the T20 series against Sri Lanka and the T20 Asia Cup in Bangladesh before the T20 World cup in March.  

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