Yuvraj Singh, who announced his retirement from all formats of the game in 2019, has expressed his desire to play T20 cricket for Punjab if and when the domestic season begins this season, according to a report by Cricbuzz.
The 38-year-old, who was part of two World Cup-winning squads – the 2007 World T20 and the 2011 ODI World Cup – with the Indian cricket team, played 40 Tests, 304 One-Day Internationals and 58 T20Is, scoring 1900, 8701 and 1177 runs in the three formats respectively.
The report stated that Yuvraj, who spent a considerable amount of time over the past few months training with Punjab players Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh in Mohali, felt he was striking the ball well in the nets. This period seems to have triggered a desire in him to make a comeback for his state team.
“I enjoyed spending time with these youngsters, and talking to them about various aspects of the game, I realised that they were able to pick up various things that I was telling them,” Yuvraj was quoted as saying by the website.
“I had to get into the nets to show them a few other elements, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was hitting the ball even though I hadn’t held a bat for a really long time.”
Yuvraj said that the secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association, Puneet Bali, was the one who initiated the discussion around his return to competitive cricket. Since the Punjab team has plenty of youngsters in it, the veteran is being looked at as a player-mentor for the group.
The southpaw stated that he was reluctant to take up the offer initially, but the opportunity to help Punjab win the domestic league motivated him to reconsider.
“After all, playing for Punjab is what paved the way for my international career,” he said.
Yuvraj is then reported to have written a letter to Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah, seeking the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s permission to come out of retirement. Yuvraj said he has assured the BCCI he will not play in any white-ball league around the world as he wants to play for Punjab for “at least a couple of seasons”.
There was a report recently that Cricket Australia was helping the all-rounder find a team in the Big Bash League while he has already featured in Global T20 Canada and T10 league.