Ajit Agarkar thinks Yuvraj Singh needs runs or it is getting close for him

There were hardly any bidders for Yuvraj Singh in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 auction but Kings XI Punjab decided to buy the veteran at his base price Rs 2 crores. The Punjab connection seems to have drawn KXIP into buying him back to the home team. They also backed him further and Yuvraj was a part of the starting XI in the initial couple of games but things haven’t panned out at par with the expectations.

In the first match against Delhi Daredevils, Yuvi walked out to bat when the team had 58 runs on the board and had just lost the first wicket. All he managed was 12 runs before giving Vijay Shankar a catch off Rahul Tewatia. KXIP eventually won the match and things ended as the team would’ve wanted. Their second outing was against Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore. On a really good batting surface, Yuvraj could just add 4 runs to the team total and was bowled by Indian pacer Umesh Yadav.

Following two failures there are talks if Yuvi at all deserves a spot in the team anymore. Former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar who now analyses the game thinks the time is running out for the left-hander and he has to come good sooner or the team has the likes of Manoj Tiwary in the ranks to replace him.

It is getting closer

“Even in the first game where there was little pressure he didn’t look fluent enough. In the second game Umesh (Yadav) worked him over a bit. Do you leave someone out after two games the one you’ve started the tournament with especially after you have had one victory out of those two not really sure but I think it is getting close,” Agarkar said while talking on ESPNCricinfo ahead of Kings XI’s tie against Chennai Super Kings.

In his view, the team wants to have a strong middle order that can carry the weight of the team in case there is a top order failure thus having an inform batsman is really crucial.

“Ashwin would really be thinking about that slot because you don’t want to put too much pressure on the middle order if your top order doesn’t do well you want someone in the middle order who can who is in good form,” he added.

“It is getting close he needs some runs,” said the 40-year-old.

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