India cricketer Yuvraj Singh stretches at a training session during the ICC World Twenty20 tournament at Dhaka Academy in The Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka. (AFP)
India received a boost ahead of today’s World Twenty20 semi-final against South Africa when Yuvraj Singh was declared fit following an ankle injury, an official said.
The flamboyant cancer survivor hurt his left ankle while playing football with team-mates on Wednesday, but the Indian squad’s media manager R.N. Baba said there was no cause for worry.
“Yuvraj is fit. He will attend practice,” Baba told reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Dhaka.
The 32-year-old overcame a lean trot to smash an attractive 60 off 43 balls, containing four sixes and five fours, against Australia on Sunday.
Yuvraj, who was man of the match during India’s World Cup-winning campaign in 2011, was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer later that year and received chemotherapy treatment in the United States.
Meanwhile, Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin refused to tip his team as the favourites to beat South Africa, despite being the only unbeaten team in the 16-nation tournament.
“When it comes down to the semi-finals, it’s anybody’s game,” the off-spinner said. “Whoever plays well on that particular day will have the advantage.”
Ashwin said India, who won the inaugural World Twenty20, was not taking into consideration South Africa’s reputation for choking in major events.
“They’ll have to use it for themselves for our advantage,” he said. “We are not looking at things like that or what happened in the past. If they want to do it, it’s their problem.”
If India win the tournament, they will become the first team to hold all three major titles, having won the 50-over World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy last year.
But Ashwin insisted the hat-trick was not on the team’s mind.
“We’ve never been a team that believed in talking about all these things, because it’s only going to make things tougher for you,” he said. “There are four teams in the semi-finals, everybody has a 25 per cent chance to win.”
Now to see what happens out in the middle today.