"With or without me, India should select the best XI. I believe that a team should be a blend of youth and experience. I am not saying that past success should be taken into account while selecting a present team but one shouldn't forget what we have achieved for the country," Yuvraj said when asked whether he still considers himself in the scheme ahead of the coming season.

Yuvraj Singh running on the beach with weights. Pic courtesy Yuvraj's Twitter account

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The 31-year-old was full of praise for Mahendra Singh Dhoni's young brigade, which has performed admirably in the past few months.

"I am very happy for the youngsters who have been performing well for the country. This augurs well for Indian cricket. I have always believed that a good team should have a proper balance. As far as I am concerned, I will do anything to get back into the Indian team," the left-hander said while addressing the media at a promotional event.

Quizzed whether he realistically finds himself in the mix for the 2015 World Cup, he gave a pragmatic reply. "I don't know what will happen tomorrow and you are asking me about something that's still one and half years away."

He hasn't set himself a fixed target to make a comeback but would ideally like to claw his way back quickly. "I want to make a comeback as soon as possible and I am pretty focussed about my game." Asked why he opted out of a pre-season tournament like Buchi Babu, he gave a vague reply, "I could only play Buchi Babu or Moin-ud Dowla if my state association is playing in the tournament."

As a rule, if a senior India player approaches a state association urging it to take that person as a guest player, anyone can play in these pre-season tourneys.

Yuvraj seemed pretty satisfied about his pre-season high-altitude training in France along with another India discard Zaheer Khan.

"It was a conscious decision to get away from the distractions that we have over here. To concentrate on a specific fitness regime, proper diet. Basically work with a purpose," he explained.

Then he made a typical tongue-in-cheek comment, "Another reason was staying away from you guys was of great help. Actually not always!"

He also said that Zaheer had shed around 6 kilos and is looking a lot fitter. "Zak has been very disciplined about his diet and has shed 6 kg. He is looking in great shape. Actually, we have a great friendship and that helps us gel well during training."

Yuvraj, however, sidestepped a query on whether he has heard anything about NCA's costs of rehabilitation of players escalating and some fingers have loosely been pointed at him and Zaheer for spending extensive time at the academy.

"I was in France and I am not aware of any such developments."