It’s been over a year since India’s star all-rounder, Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement from international cricket. He had become a household name, just like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are modern-day cricket. The former Punjab batsman would single-handedly win matches for India, even in the most difficult circumstances.
The winner of T20I and ODI World Cups was coughing blood while giving it his all for the nation in 2011, but he made sure that the golden trophy comes home after 28 long years. Yuvraj Singh was adjudged Man-of-the-Series for his performance but as fate had it, he was diagnosed with cancer just after lifting the cup.
Yuvraj Singh surely made a roaring comeback, scored his highest ODI score but could never cement his place permanently in the squad. In his illustrious career, the southpaw played 304 ODIs, 58 T20Is, and 40 Test matches for India.
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After his retirement, Yuvraj has featured in some foreign leagues. The swashbuckling batsman featured in Global T20 Canada and then in Abu Dhabi T20 league. He scored 44 runs from 5 matches in Canada T20 league, while he aggregated 153 runs from 6 matches of Abu Dhabi T10 league.
In a recent conversation with Gaurav Kapur, Yuvraj had revealed that he retired from cricket as the sport was not giving him the desired mental help. He said, “When you are at a fast pace in life you don’t realize a lot of things and suddenly you are like what has happened here. I have got to a stage when cricket was not helping me mentally, I always wanted to play cricket but it was not helping me in a good state of mind.”
He further elaborated, “I miss the game sometime but more often I do not miss it because I have played for so many years. I get so many messages for fans, so much love that I feel really blessed. More than anything the respect the game has given you, and if you are happy with that respect you have earned for the last 20 years I think it’s the right time to move on. I hadn’t slept since many years and I tried to sleep really well.”
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The former batsman, who has 8,701 runs in his ODI career, said that playing in foreign leagues was fun. Yuvraj on a lighter note said that the pace of the game was increasing but he was slowing down with his age. Yuvraj Singh also talked about Zaheer Khan and pulled his legs saying that the former pacer would field for only 5 overs in Abu Dhabi T10 league. Yuvraj Singh admitted that age had taken a toll over his quality of cricket.
