The Indian Premier League has opened the doors for many Indian stars like Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkiya Rahane. Many of the past performers like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid have also been successful either by leading the team or by doing mentoring work. This cash-rich league has done wonders to a lot of overseas players like Glenn Maxwell, David Miller and Kieron Pollard. But this lucrative league hasn't done anything for one Indian icon named Yuvraj Singh.
Problems in the past
Yuvraj, who has been part of five different teams since the inaugural edition, has been successful only once. That happened in 2008, when he was leading his home franchise Kings XI Punjab and he took the team to the semi-finals – in the very first edition of IPL. After that, his progress as a captain and particularly as a player has come to a halt. Tom Moody, who was the coach of Kings XI Punjab, removed Yuvraj's armband in 2010 and appointed Kumar Sangakkara as the captain of Punjab.
Yuvraj hadn't had a great IPL in 2010 – not even close to the past two seasons. He was released by the franchise and later picked by the Pune Warriors and he was appointed as the captain of Pune after his successful stint in the World Cup. But he failed to cope with the expectations as the team finished 7th in 2011 and 2013.
Despite not playing to his potential, Yuvraj’s value as a player incresed at the auction in 2014 and 2015. He was picked by the flamboyant team Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping price of 14 crore. He played two match-winning innings against Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils but he was released by the team, though he was the leading run-scorer after AB Devilliers.
Last Year Delhi came to Yuvi’s for a price more than Royal Challengers paid for the star all-rounder. But he managed to score only 248 runs and after that the same old story was repeated – he was again put on the auction list.
Will things be different at SRH?
It is difficult to play the way you want when you are not part of a single franchise and a lot of expectations are put on you. The high price that Yuvraj went for in the past two seasons was one of the many reasons he failed miserably. For the price that Yuvi went last season the team expected him to win at least four matches on his own to prove his worth. But the southpaw's failure was evident and as a result, Yuvraj went for 7 crores in this year’s auction to the Sunrisers Hyderabad, which is 9 crore less than the previous year.
Hyderabad is one of the teams that has had an awful middle order in the past, and that is the main reason they recruited the Indian all-rounder. An ankle injury prevented him from playing in the first phase of the IPL but when he did get a chance to play, he wasn’t able to produce the explosive impact right away the way he had in the past.
He was very sluggish against Gujarat Lions, but the cameo against Mumbai would have raised his confidence. The match winning knock of 42 off just 24 against Kings XI Punjab was brilliant, but the rapturous welcome he got from the crowd on his debut for Sunrisers was obvious that they want more from the elegant left-hander.
As Sunrisers are maintaining their good run of form, Yuvraj needs to contribute something on his own. Being a part of different teams is always tough and Yuvraj himself admits that he has not been lucky in the domestic T20 tournament. "I feel that IPL has been a little tough for me. I have not had the same form that I have when I play for India. Especially in the last three-four years, I haven’t been part of one team and it hasn’t been that good for me,” he said.
The 35-year-old, however, hopes there will be a change of fortunes soon. “I hope that I can now stick with one franchise for a few years and play well in this tournament,” he added.
It is quite disheartening to see the man who has triumphed in the Under 19, T20 and the 50 over World Cup has never had any achievements to his name in the IPL. Will Sunrisers be the team that allow Yuvi to achieve that elusive crown?
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