Yuvraj Singh announced his decision to retire from all forms of cricket on Monday (June 10). In nearly two decades at the highest level, since his ODI debut against Kenya in 2000, Yuvraj featured in 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is, while also playing a pivotal role in India’s two big triumphs – the 2007 World T20 and the 2011 World Cup. Yuvraj was a product on the U-19 set up, impressing with 203 runs in the World Cup in 2000 and making his way to the senior side in less than a year.’
Though he turned heads with an 80-ball 84 in just his second ODI – against Australia, it wasn’t until the run chase in the NatWest series final at the Lord’s that made him a household name. Yuvraj earned his Test debut in 2003, but it turned out to be a format that he couldn’t quite get a hold of – as evidenced by the meager 40 Test caps he received. In ODIs, however, he walks off as one of the finest batsmen to have played for India. The middle-order batsman finished with 8701 runs at an average of 38, that included 14 hundred and 52 fifties. Yuvraj’s finest hour came in the 2011 50-over World Cup.
A battle with cancer kept him out of the game for a while, and though he returned for a second wind, he wasn’t the same player as before. He still fought on and kept his spot in the side until 2013, but then faced an uncertain future. After a four-year lay-off between 2013 and 2017, Yuvraj made another comeback – this time in the home series against England in 2017 in Virat Kohli’s first as full-time captain. Yuvraj got picked for the away tour of West Indies right after the Champions Trophy in 2017, where he ended up playing his last ODI for India. Since then, he has made occasional domestic appearances for Punjab and has been a squad player in the last two seasons of the IPL.
