HoneY
MaaPeya Da LaaDLa
Mahendra Singh Dhoni may be his good friend in dressing room, but on the field he will fight it out without leaving any space to take an edge, especially when pride is at stake before the "home crowd", says Yuvraj Singh.
"There is no friendship on the field. We will want to win the game and have an upper hand in the competition," said Yuvraj, captain of the Indian Premier League's Kings XI Mohali team, ahead of their opening match on Saturday.
"Maybe, I will share a joke with him after the game," added Yuvraj, who will take on Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings.
"It's a good way to build the hype (around the competition) by pitching it as Yuvraj versus Dhoni contest," he said.
Dressed in a white T-shirt and cargos, Yuvraj, who reached here in his yellow sports car, was beaming with confidence and looked excited about the IPL's inaugural Twenty20 championship.
Yuvraj does not agree that too much cricket will be played with IPL happening now.
"IPL is going to be there just for 44 days, rest of the time we play international cricket. I don't know why people go overboard when they say IPL will do this or do that (talk negative about the League)," he said.
The Yuvraj-led team has a formidable batting line-up with Mahela Jayawardene, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara, and youngsters like Karan Goel and Uday Kaul in the side.
Australian pacer Brett Lee is spearheading the bowling attack along with S Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan
"I am happy with the team composition. It's a good mix of youngsters and senior players. We have an equally good bowling attack to put any team under pressure," said Yuvraj. Yuvraj, who hit six sixes in one over in the ICC T20 World Cup last year, said he could repeat the feat in the upcoming competition.
"Anything can happen in cricket, you never know, though I feel such things happen once-in-a-lifetime," he said.
The Indian team's vice captain felt that IPL was an "excellent platform" for youngsters to learn from international players.
Asked where he saw IPL going from here, Yuvraj said, "I am sure it is going to pick up and will be a success".
He said he was hopeful that a "lot of people will turn up to watch the event".
"With seven matches to be played in Mohali, I am sure there will be lot of fans who will be coming here from various parts of Punjab," he said.
The Punjab IPL team's coach Tom Moody said he would like to see his team start winning from the first match itself.
Asked if he sees there will be a loss for the team when Brett Lee leaves the competition after playing a few matches to attend his national duties, Moody said, "we are lucky to have him in our side, but replacements will be filled by right players. We have the whole squad and there is nothing to worry".
Irfan Pathan, who also arrived here, said he was looking to extract extra pace from the seamer-friendly Mohali track.
"There is no friendship on the field. We will want to win the game and have an upper hand in the competition," said Yuvraj, captain of the Indian Premier League's Kings XI Mohali team, ahead of their opening match on Saturday.
"Maybe, I will share a joke with him after the game," added Yuvraj, who will take on Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings.
"It's a good way to build the hype (around the competition) by pitching it as Yuvraj versus Dhoni contest," he said.
Dressed in a white T-shirt and cargos, Yuvraj, who reached here in his yellow sports car, was beaming with confidence and looked excited about the IPL's inaugural Twenty20 championship.
Yuvraj does not agree that too much cricket will be played with IPL happening now.
"IPL is going to be there just for 44 days, rest of the time we play international cricket. I don't know why people go overboard when they say IPL will do this or do that (talk negative about the League)," he said.
The Yuvraj-led team has a formidable batting line-up with Mahela Jayawardene, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara, and youngsters like Karan Goel and Uday Kaul in the side.
Australian pacer Brett Lee is spearheading the bowling attack along with S Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan
"I am happy with the team composition. It's a good mix of youngsters and senior players. We have an equally good bowling attack to put any team under pressure," said Yuvraj. Yuvraj, who hit six sixes in one over in the ICC T20 World Cup last year, said he could repeat the feat in the upcoming competition.
"Anything can happen in cricket, you never know, though I feel such things happen once-in-a-lifetime," he said.
The Indian team's vice captain felt that IPL was an "excellent platform" for youngsters to learn from international players.
Asked where he saw IPL going from here, Yuvraj said, "I am sure it is going to pick up and will be a success".
He said he was hopeful that a "lot of people will turn up to watch the event".
"With seven matches to be played in Mohali, I am sure there will be lot of fans who will be coming here from various parts of Punjab," he said.
The Punjab IPL team's coach Tom Moody said he would like to see his team start winning from the first match itself.
Asked if he sees there will be a loss for the team when Brett Lee leaves the competition after playing a few matches to attend his national duties, Moody said, "we are lucky to have him in our side, but replacements will be filled by right players. We have the whole squad and there is nothing to worry".
Irfan Pathan, who also arrived here, said he was looking to extract extra pace from the seamer-friendly Mohali track.
