Former India all-rounder heaped praises on how Mahendra Singh Dhoni had given him a clarity during the twilight of his career. Jogging down the memory lane, Yuvraj said that Dhoni had already informed him that he would not be part of the Indian squad for the ICC World Cup 2019.

Before retiring in June 2019, the flamboyant left-hander had last donned the blue Indian jersey in 2017. However, with a corp of talented young middle-order batsmen coming, Yuvraj was soon left ignored by the selectors.

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In the calendar year of 2017, when he had made a comeback on to the international arena and scored 372 runs in 11 ODIs, including a 150 against England in Cuttack.

“When I made my comeback, Virat Kohli supported me. Had he not backed me then I wouldn’t have made a comeback. But then it was (MS) Dhoni who showed me the correct picture about the 2019 World Cup that selectors are not looking at you,” Yuvraj was quoted as saying by News18, according to IANS.

“He showed me the real picture. He gave me clarity. He did as much as he could,” he added.

Yuvraj further said that Dhoni had utmost confidence in him till the ICC World Cup 2011, which India had won and the all-rounder was crowned the Player of the Tournament in. He said that things had started to change after he had made his comeback after battling cancer. Yuvraj was not included in the squad for the 2015 World Cup as well.

“Till the 2011 World Cup, MS had a lot of confidence in me and used to tell me that ‘you are my main player’,” Yuvraj said. “But after coming back from illness the game changed and a lot of changes happened in the team. So as far as the 2015 World Cup is concerned, you can’t really pinpoint at something. So this is a very personal call.

“So I understood that as a captain sometimes you can’t justify everything because at the end of the day you have to see how the country performs,” he added.

In an international career that had spanned over 19 years, Yuvraj played 304 One Day Internationals for India and scored 8701 runs with 14 centuries. His Test numbers included 1900 runs from 40 matches with three centuries.