Yuvraj Singh to come out of retirement; to play T20s for Punjab

Amid news of wanting to play in Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL), Yuvraj Singh has decided to come out of retirement and play for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. This comes after a Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) official asked Yuvraj Singh to give it a thought.

“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,” Yuvraj Singh, who won the Player of the Tournament at the 2011 World Cup, told Cricbuzz.

Though Yuvraj Singh announced retirement a year back, he was seen practising with Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh at the PCA Stadium in Mohali over the past few months.

PCA secretary Puneet Bali then requested him to come out of retirement and in turn mentor the youngsters in the side.

The motivation is to help Punjab win championships: Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh

“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...As things stand now, I will be playing only T20s if I get the nod,” Yuvraj Singh added.

Yuvraj Singh played for the Toronto Nationals in the Global T20 in Canada in August last year, and then for the Maratha Arabians in the Abu Dhabi T10 League last November. Recently, the southpaw showed interest in playing the Big Bash and Cricket Australia (CA) was working to find him a team.