Pain was unbearable, says Yuvraj

Mahendra Singh Dhoni will never forget Yuvraj screaming AAAAAAAAHHH after being hit on the finger by a ball during yesterday's Champions Trophy training session.

Now, Dhoni is a man with the Midas touch. He is also captain of the No 1 team in one-day international cricket, but he has had to cope with a host of upheavals in the last few months.u00a0 During the World T20, he lost Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan through shoulder injuries. He then missed the services of Gautam Gambhir in the recent tri-series in Sri Lanka. Now, it's Yuvraj who is missing in his starting XI for Saturday's critical match against Pakistan.

At the moment, Dhoni appears like Atlas, the god of weightlifting and heavy burdens in Greek mythology. Spare a thought for Yuvraj too. This is the second Champions Trophy he is missing due to injury. Before the 2006 edition, he hurt his knee while playing kho kho with his teammates. "As soon as the ball hit me, I knew this was serious. The pain was simply unbearable. I just couldn't pick myself up," Yuvraj told MiD DAY when he returned to team hotel yesterday afternoon. He may seek a second opinion on the injury here soon.