Yuvraj Singh feels India must take advantage of the spin-frien-dly wicket at the Sydney Cricket Ground if they want to beat Australia in their World Cup semi-final on Thursday.
The co-hosts beat Pakistan by six wickets yesterday to set up a last-four match against the defending champions, who defeated Bangladesh by 109 runs on Thursday.
That victory saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side clinch their seventh straight win Down Under and the 2011 World Cup Player of the Tournament has been impressed with the men in blue.
“Australia has been playing very well and the match is at SCG. With that, I feel a bit of turn (in the pitch) can be a huge advantage for India so let’s see how the wicket plays. Whichever team starts well and gains the momentum will win,” said Yuvraj during the Emirates Airline T20 at The Sevens, yesterday.
He added: “India has played very well in the conditions out there. They have improved with every game. The best part is that everybody is performing and if they can do it again two more times, I’m sure they can win the title.”
The 33-year-old has been particularly impressed with Mohammed Shami, who has 17 scalps to his name. “Shami has been bowling really well as he started his career only a couple of years back,” he said.
“I’m really impressed with the way he has bowled. Hopefully these guys can do the job in the semi-final.”
Despite not representing India since the World T20 final against Sri Lanka in April 2014, Yuvraj refused to dwell on his future but bel-ieves next month’s Indian Premier League can be the perfect platform to impress the selectors.
“I’m not thinking about that, I’m not part of the set-up. As long as India is doing well and showing good res-ults I feel that’s the point,” said Yuv-raj, who has played 293 ODIs.
“The goal is to score some runs in the IPL and get back in the Indian set-up. I feel I have good two years of international cricket left in me and I want to do my best in the IPL to get back in the team,” said Yuvraj.
He will line up as the most expensive player after being bought by Delhi Daredevils for Rs160 million (Dh9.4m)
