Yuvraj Singh draws curtain on coveted international career

One performance is never enough to highlight Yuvraj Singh’scontribution to Indian cricket. But if there was one phase when he ruled worldcricket, it had to be during the 2011 World Cup in India. And the man whoalmost single-handedly won India the coveted trophy announced his retirementfrom international cricket on Monday.

Yuvraj, who has not been a part of the Indian team for quitesome time, has been contemplating retirement from international cricket andrumours are rife that he might pursue a career as a freelance cricketer invarious ICC approved foreign T20 leagues.

   

He last played a Test match for India in 2012 and featuredin a limited-overs series in 2017.

In the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League, he hadalmost gone unsold before Mumbai Indians grabbed him at his base price. Heplayed only four matches for the franchise scoring 98 runs with onehalf-century.

Coming back to the highlight of his career, the 37-year-oldhad a dream run at the 2011 World Cup as he amassed 362 runs including onecentury and four fifties. He also picked 15 wickets, won four Man-of-the-Matchawards and was also awarded the Player of the Tournament. In the process, hebecame the first all-rounder to score 300-plus runs and take 15 wickets in asingle edition of the showpiece event.

After the World Cup, he was diagnosed with cancerous tumorin his left lung and underwent chemotherapy treatment in Boston andIndianapolis. While he did make a return to the national team post recovery,life was never the same and he became an on and off member of the Indian team.

Apart from the 2011 World Cup, another highlight in hisillustrious career would be the 6 sixes he hit at the inaugural edition of theWorld T20 in South Africa in 2007. In India’s Super 8 match against England atDurban, he hit six sixes in an over off Stuart Broad and brought the crowd toits feet. In the process, he reached the fastest fifty ever in a T20 game, offjust 12 balls, which was also the fastest in any form of international cricket.

Not to forget what the youngster did during the 2002 NatwestTrophy final at the Lord’s. In what seemed a game that was there for England towin — after India’s famed top-order flopped — Yuvraj combined with MohammadKaif to take the visitors home as visuals of a shirtless Sourav Ganguly wavingthe jersey from the Lord’s balcony is one folklores are made of.

In all, Yuvraj played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is forIndia in which he scored 1900, 8701 and 1177 runs respectively.

In 2012, he was conferred with the Arjuna Award and twoyears later, he was awarded the Padma Shri. At the 2014 IPL auctions, RoyalChallengers Bangalore bought Yuvraj for an all-time high price of Rs 14croreand in 2015, the Delhi Daredevils bought him for Rs 16crore making him the mostexpensive player ever to be sold in the cash-rich league.

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