Sri Lanka legend Mutthia Muralitharan has recently revealed the real reason why India captain MS Dhoni promoted himself ahead of in-form Yuvraj Singh in the final of the 2011 World Cup.
Muralitharan recollected the incident during the announcement of the schedule for upcoming ICC ODI World Cup 2023, which will played in India, on June 27.
As per the legendry spinner, the reason why Dhoni walked up to bat before Yuvraj was the latter’s struggles while facing him. On the other hand, Dhoni had played against Muralitharan in the nets during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season owing to which the 41-year-old cricketer was comfortable playing the Sri Lankan.
“Though Yuvraj was the best player at number four position in the World Cup at that time, he was not very comfortable playing me,” said Muralitharan during the event.
“I was bowling a lot against Dhoni in the nets in Chennai while playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). So Dhoni knew how to play me very well. So I thought he didn’t want to give any wickets to me because I was wicket-less despite bowling well,” said the former Sri Lanka great.