The former Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh doesn’t think that the timing of Rahul Dravid’s infamous declaration in the Multan test match of 2004 against Pakistan, where he declared the innings when Sachin Tendulkar was batting on 194, was right.
Yuvraj Singh was recently speaking on Sports 18 and since he was a part of the Indian squad for that tour of Pakistan, he was asked the question about the declaration in the Multan test. Yuvraj did admit that it was the plan of the Indian think tank to bowl a few overs during the fag end of the second day with India already having put a huge score on the board.
India bowled a few overs at Pakistan as per the plan, but according to Yuvraj, Sachin Tendulkar should have been given the chance to complete his double hundred because he was only 6 runs away and he could have completed it in a couple of overs.
Although a message was sent to the batsmen at the crease from the dressing room that they should play at a higher clip and get to their personal milestones as quickly as they could because the management was thinking about the declaration.
A couple of overs wouldn’t have made any difference: Yuvraj Singh
But, Yuvraj Singh thinks even if Sachin couldn’t get to the double hundred in the timeframe that the management had in mind for declaration, he should still have been given a couple of more overs because a couple of overs wouldn’t have affected the outcome of the test match significantly.
Sachin Tendulkar himself was also unhappy about the timing of the declaration and he didn’t hide his frustration and disappointment in the press conference after the day’s play. Sachin then went on to write about the incident in his biography as well and also revealed that Rahul Dravid had a chat with him after the declaration, because he felt that he was upset about it.
It was the same Multan test match where Virender Sehwag had scored India’s first-ever triple hundred in test match cricket.
