World Cup winner Yuvraj Singh has confirmed his plans to end his absence from professional cricket in order to play for Punjab.
The all-rounder confirmed his international retirement during the 2019 Cricket World Cup. While he intended to continue playing in franchise cricket around the world, the left-hander last played a competitive fixture in April 2019.
But having helped out in training with the Punjab team, Yuvraj found his skills undiminished, and so intends to return to domestic action at the behest of the secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association.
“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 said, according to Cricbuzz. “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.
“I also trained for those two months, and then I started to bat in the off-season camp. I made runs in some of the practice matches. Mr Puneet Bali, the secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association, approached me after one of the sessions and asked me if I would reconsider coming out of retirement.
“Initially, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to take up the offer. I was done with domestic cricket, though I did want to continue to play in other domestic franchise-based leagues worldwide if I got permission from the BCCI. But I also couldn’t ignore Mr Bali’s request. I gave it a lot of thought, for nearly three or four weeks, and it was almost as if I didn’t even have to make a conscious decision in the end.
“The motivation is to help Punjab win championships. Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh), myself, we have won tournaments, but we haven’t done it together for Punjab, so that was a big factor in my final call,” Yuvraj points out. “Obviously, Shubman is already playing for India, and I feel there’s plenty of potential in the other three boys. If I can contribute in any way to their development and to the development of Punjab cricket, then that will be wonderful. After all, playing for Punjab is what paved the way for my international career.”
Yuvraj’s current desire is only to play T20 cricket, but he hinted that that could change “As things stand now, I will be playing only T20s if I get the nod,” he said. “But who knows, let’s see.”
There have been reports in the Australian media that Yuvraj and Cricket Australia are attempting to find a Big Bash League club for the Indian legend, but that there has been little interest so far.
