On Monday, 10th of June 2019, stylish left-handed Indian cricket team batsman Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement, spanning close to 19 years and over 400 matches.
“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 has taught me how to fight, how to fall, to dust off, to get up again and move forward,” he said at a press conference in Mumbai.
“I was extremely lucky to play 400 games for India. I could have never imagined it when I first started playing cricket,” he added.
He has, however, confirmed that he will be pursuing a freelance career in ICC approved foreign Twenty20 leagues. Yuvraj came into the scene in the ICC Knockout Tournament in 2000 in Nairobi and helped India reach the final. He had been the main force behind India’s second World Cup triumph in 2011 for which he received the player of the tournament award. He also became the first all-rounder to score 300 plus runs and to take 15 wickets in a single World Cup.
Regarded as one of India’s greatest limited overs cricketer, some of Yuvraj’s career highlights involve playing a brilliant 69 run knock in the 2002 Natwest final. In a 2007 ICC World Twenty20 match, he hit six-sixes in a single over which will never be forgotten. He was a T20I superstar as well, playing 58 matches to score 1177 runs with a superb strike rate of 136.38, with a top score of 77 not out versus Australia at Rajkot in 2013.
Yuvraj, who is also a cancer survivor, last played a Test in 2012 and an ODI and T20 in 2017. Overall he has played 402 international matches and retires with over 11000 international runs and 148 international wickets across all three formats of the sport.
