Yuvraj is god's gift to Indian cricket, says Sandeep Patil

Yuvraj was picked for the limited-overs series against England last year after the selectors were convinced of his form and fitness during the Ranji Trophy. The vote of confidence was cast after Yuvraj stacked up 672 runs in five games, including scores of 260 and 177. However, despite scoring 372 runs at an average of 41.33 with a strike-rate of 98.67 in his last 10 innings, he found himself out of the team for the Sri Lanka and the upcoming Australia series. Despite that, Patil believes that the southpaw can still be picked in the team if he can raise his fitness level.

"It will be looked after by the professionals, who are working with the Indian team, so it will be wrong on my part to say what is going to happen with Dhoni, Yuvraj. But they are special cricketers, I wish I had even five percent of what they (kind of talent) have," the 61-year-old told PTI.

"We had a very difficult task of replacing players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and get these youngsters. Somewhere, in my mind, I am very happy that the bold decisions which we took are giving tremendous results."

The former Indian batsman also acknowledged that the Indian cricket team’s recent dominance in world cricket was great.

"It was West Indies who ruled the 1950s and 60s, then it was Australia, then it was Pakistan, South Africa and now India is ruling so it would be very wrong of me to say that."

"It's cricket, it's a funny game, you have to go out there, start afresh. Every day is fresh, every over is fresh, every ball is fresh and to repeat that is not easy. India is playing great cricket," he concluded.