Indian Captain Dhoni praises Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh's consecutive one-day centuries against England, after having been dropped from the Test squad, have won him rich praise from India's captain and selectors ahead of the third match of the series Thursday.

Yuvraj hit a dominant 138 from just 78 balls in the series opener in Rajkot and followed it with a composed 118 in the second one-dayer at Indore - where he also snared four wickets - to take man-of-the-match honours in successive matches.

Riding on Yuvraj's dominant knocks, India has surged to a 2-0 lead in the seven-match series.

"I hope he scores his third consecutive century here," India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said at training Wednesday at Green Park Stadium.

"On song, Yuvraj is simply one of the best, even the top bowlers struggle against him," said Dhoni. "Yuvraj is a strong-hitter and hits along the ground."

Yuvraj ignored back pain to make himself available for the England series, as he was eager to keep himself on the selection radar after being dropped from the Test squad following poor form on the recent tour to Sri Lanka.

India's chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth said Yuvraj's form had pushed his claim to fill the Test squad's middle-order slot vacated by retirement of former skipper Sourav Ganguly.

"Yuvraj is definitely a front-runner" for Test selection, Srikkanth was quoted as saying Tuesday in The Telegraph in Calcutta.

"Over the years, he has already shown he's a match-winner in one-day internationals. I see Yuvraj as a potential match-winner in Tests too."

India's pace attack for the third one-day match will be strengthened by the return of Ishant Sharma, who was declared fit Wednesday after missing the opening two matches with an ankle sprain.

"In the Test series against Australia, Ishant bowled long spells and was tired," Dhoni said. "But even then, he gave it his best and bowled his heart out."