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Flamboyant all -rounder Yuvraj Singh has finally announced his retirement from International cricket after 19 years . The 37 year – old was voted the ‘player of the tournament’ in the 2011 ICC World Cup which India won after 28 years. He was outstanding with both bat and ball. He scored 362 runs and took 15 wickets.
At a press conference Yuvraj said it was time to move on : 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.
In his 19 year career Yuvraj played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 Twenty20 Internationals. THough he excelled in 50 overs and T20 formats , his Test career did not flourish. he was in and out of the team . And moreover, getting a spot in the Tests at that time was tough as the team had the Fab four – Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. Yuvraj Had no option but wait for his turn.
In 40 Tests , Yuvraj Scored 1900 runs with three hundreds and 11 fifties at an average of 33.9 His highest was 169. But in ODI’s and T20’s he was the X- factor with his batting bowling and fielding . Making him one of the backbone of the side.
In 304 ODIs, Yuvi scored big – 8,701 runs at an average of 36.55 including 52 half-centuries and 14 centuries with 150 his top innings . In T20’s 58 matches scoring 1177 runs at an average of 28.0 and strike rate of 136. 4
Yuvraj was a key member of the T20 World Cup winning squad in South Africa in 2007 . The tournament where he smashed English bowler Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over in brilliant display of power batting . In the same match, he set the record for the fastest fifty in Twenty20 Internationals and in all Twenty20 cricket, reaching 50 runs in 12 balls.
He played in the Indian Premier League for various Franchises over the years – Kings XI Punjab, Sahara Pune Warriors, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi DareDevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians .
In 2011, Yuvraj was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his left lung and underwent chemotherapy treatment in Boston and Indianapolis.
In March 2012, he was discharged from the hospital after completing the third and final cycle of chemotherapy and returned to India in April. He made his international comeback in a Twenty20 match in September against New Zealand shortly before the 2012 World Twenty20.
In 2012, Yuvraj was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India’s second highest sporting award by the Government of India. In 2014, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour.
At the 2014 IPL auction Royal Challengers Bangalore bought Yuvraj for an all-time high price of ₹14 crore and, in 2015, the Delhi Daredevils bought him for ₹16 crore making him the most expensive player ever to be sold in the IPL.
He was the member of the Mumbai Indians IPL side that won the 2019 IPL. He had earlier won the IPL title with Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016.
And #YuvrajSingh finishes things off in style!
The curtains come down on a remarkable career #ThankYouYuvraj #OrangeArmy #RiseWithUs @YUVSTRONG12 pic.twitter.com/AHFtW9AHsq
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) June 10, 2019
