Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa has claimed that Virat Kohli played a significant role in Yuvraj Singh's exclusion from the national team in his final years. Uthappa said on the Lallantop YouTube channel that Kohli did not consider Yuvraj's fitness challenges after his battle with cancer. Despite passing a fitness test, Yuvraj was dropped from the team and not given further opportunities, which eventually resulted in his retirement.
"When Yuvi requested for that two-point deduction, he didn’t get it. Then he did the test because he was outside the team and they weren’t taking him in. He passed the fitness test, came inside the team, had a lean tournament, took him out totally. Never entertained him after that. Whoever was in the leadership group, didn’t entertain him. That time Virat was the leader and it went according to him due to his strong personality, and that time it was according to him," Uthappa said.
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"The man beat cancer, and he is trying to come back into the international side. He is the man who won us a World Cup, won us two World Cups for that matter, along with the other players, but played an integral role in helping us win. Then for such a player, when you become captain, you say his lung capacity has diminished and you have been with him when you have seen him struggle," he added.
Uthappa also criticized Kohli’s leadership style, calling it “my way or the highway” and focusing solely on results rather than how players were treated. "I haven’t played under Virat as a captain very much. But Virat as a captain, he was very ‘my way or the highway’ kind of a captain. It's not like these guys aren’t also like that, but how to treat your team, how you treat your personnel, because it is not just about results," he further added.
Yuvraj, a key member of India's 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup victories, was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. He returned to international cricket in 2012 but struggled to regain his previous form. He retired from international cricket in 2019.
