Reports: Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh to return for one last time?

Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan during the 2011 World Cup

According to Indian weekly magazine India Today, four players – Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh – could be selected for India’s tour of Bangladesh which is scheduled for next month. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are seeing this as an opportunity to give the four cricketers a respectful farewell from international cricket.

The quartet were the backbone of the Indian cricket team in the noughties and made important contributions when the Men in Blue lifted their second Cricket World Cup at home in 2011. Yuvraj’s performances in the tournament also saw him being named the Player of the Tournament.

But since 2011, all four cricketers have faced periods where they have been in and out of the team, and were ignored for the 2015 World Cup. Gautam Gambhir, another of those not selected for the World Cup, will not be considered for this tour as the BCCI probably sees a future for him in international cricket still.

While the selectors may or may not go ahead with this move, it will be interesting to see if the four players accept such an arrangement. One expects that they would want to play for India for a longer period and might not be willing to play a farewell series as yet.

While Zaheer and Harbhajan have impressed in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sehwag and Yuvraj have struggled for runs though the latter has had his moments.

The tour, which compromises of 1 Test and 3 ODIs, will begin on June 10. India’s squad will be announced on May 20.