The lighter side of Yuvraj Singh stands in complete contrast with the left-hander’s seriousness on the cricket ground. In a conversation with The Indian Express, Yuvraj Singh speaks about how and why he prepares differently for matches, and also talks of his unfulfilled talent. Excerpts:

•To start with, Kings XI didn’t have the big names of Twenty20 playing this edition of the IPL. Is it good to be underestimated at times?

• I am happy if others underestimate us as a team. We have got some good people playing in our side, and it’s about completing the tasks assigned to them. Our batsmen have scored runs in the first few games, and our bowlers have done well to defend some close games. It’s about having a set of people, playing good cricket and getting the right results.

•Everyone says Yuvraj has god-gifted talent as a cricketer and he doesn’t need to take the grind at the nets before the match to score runs. Is it true?

• Everybody has talent but one has to work on that and improve as a cricketer. Look at the amount of hard work Sachin Tendulkar puts in his game. For me, it works differently. I might like to go to a beach and just like to run or just listen to some music preparing for a cricket match. I like to feel relaxed mentally coming into a match.

But sometimes, when I am not happy about the way I am hitting the ball, I will go into the nets and bat for hours together. One has to understand that after my knee and shoulder injuries, I have to spend a lot of time working out and with the kind of travelling we do nowadays, it gets difficult to go into the nets everyday.

... contd.