After breaking several records over the years and garnering acclaim as one of the best limited overs batsmen to have donned the Indian Blues, Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement from international cricket on Monday.
The Man of the Tournament of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 – which India won, Yuvraj last played an International match on 30 June 2017 against West Indies in a One Day International in North Sound.
“After 25 years in and around the 22 yards and almost 17 years of international cricket on and off, I have decided to move on. This game taught me how to fight, how to fall, to dust off, to get up again and move forward,” the southpaw said at a press conference in Mumbai.
There cannot be any one standout performance to describe Yuvraj Singh and his invaluable contribution to Indian and World Cricket. But if there was any one particular phase and stage of world cricket which the veteran batsman ruled, it had to be the 2011 Cricket World Cup during which he was fighting not only the opponents on the pitch but a cancerous tumour in his lung.
The 37-year-old had a dream run in the 2011 World Cup as he scored 362 runs including one century and four fifties. He also picked 15 wickets and won four Man-of-the-Match awards on his way to winning the Man of the Tournament prize.
“To be a part of history that was made after 28 years, what more could I ask for,” Singh said, in reference to the famous World Cup win in 2011.
Yuvraj was never again the same player after battling cancer and making a comeback.
However, franchises continued to show immense faith in him in the Indian Premier League.
In 2014, Yuvraj Singh went to Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping Rs 14 crore while Delhi Capitals snapped him up for another astounding figure Rs 16 crore in IPL 2015.
After a dismal stint with Kings XI Punjab in the 2018 IPL season, Yuvraj Singh was bought for his base price by Mumbai Indians and featured in only a few matches in Mumbai’s title-winning season.
In all, Yuvraj played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is for India in which he scored 1900, 8701 and 1177 runs, respectively. He also took a total of 148 wickets in all three formats of the game.
Singh’s exquisite cover drive, especially, the one with which he finished off the quarter final against Australia in the 2011 World Cup and his six sixes against England in the World T20 in 2007 will forever be etched in the hearts of the cricket fans.
Yuvraj thanked his family, teammates, coaching staff and others who he had interacted with during his playing career. The cancer survivor would now be focusing on his work with cancer patients with his initiative YOUWECAN.