Yuvraj Singh's debut in International Cricket

One of the most naturally gifted players of his generation, Yuvraj Singh made his debut in the ICC Knockout trophy in the year 2000. He is a classical left hander who just leaves you awestuck with his majestic stroke play. He can also prove to be the pick of the bowlers on any given day and he is a very agile fielder as well. He along with Kaif could be seen as the men who revolutionized the Indian filelding standards. He is remembered for his 6 sixes in an over of Stuart Broad in the 2007 World T20. He is seen as the hero of the 2007 World T20 and the 2011 World Cup triumphs of India. In 2007 he was second best player of the tournament after Afridi and in 2011 he got the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament Award.

He is respected as a fighter after it was revealed that he was playing with tumor in his lungs all through the 2011 World Cup. This tumor actually brought a downfall in his career and he is now struggling to be a regular part of the Indian side. But still he was surprisingly bought for a whooping 14 crores by RCB. But he was only able to show his heroics in bits and pieces and not on a consistent basis. He also started a foundation UVcan which fights against cancer.

Yuvi started his cricket forcibly as he was more interested in Tennis and Skating, he was not only interested but was also good at it. His father who himself represented India pulled Yuvi in to cricket. Being a natural athlete he quickly started to do wonders. He played for Punjab U-16 when he was about to turn 14, and within a year his performances earned him a place in the Punjab U-19 side and in the same year he sneaked into the senior side as well.

He quickly made his name in domestic circuit and was a blue eyed boy for Punjab. His all-round contribution in India’s U-19 World Cup victory under skipper Mohammad Kaif not only earned him the Man of the Tournament award but also opened doors for him for the Indian team which was struggling after the infamous match fixing saga. He was selected for the ICC-Knock Out Trophy in Kenya where he got a chance to play his first international match for India against Kenya on Oct. 3, 2000. He bowled 4 overs in that match and gave 16 runs, but he did not get a chance to bat in the match.

But it was the quarter final against the mighty Kangaroos where he got out to bat in a crunch situation and proved why he has made it to the team with a score of 84 in just 80 balls. He also scored some valuable runs in the semi-final but failed in the finals. Then due to his poor show in a subsequent tri nation tournament, he was axed from the team. But he again came back in to the team in 2001 and after his great match winning knocks in England in the historic triangular series victory, he became a regular and integral part of Team India under Sourav Ganguly.

Despite making his Test debut in 2003, Yuvraj has never been able to cement a permanent spot in the side and has been in and out of it on several occasions.