Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh (born 12 December 1981) is a former Indian international cricketer who played in all formats of the game. He was particularly known for his aggressive and elegant stroke play and match winning all-round performances for India. He is an all-rounder who bats left-handed in the middle order and bowls Slow left-arm orthodox. He scored 362 runs and scalped 15 wickets in 2011 ICC Cricket world cup and won man of the series award. He was also one of the top performers in 2007 ICC World T-20 both of which India won. Yuvraj is the son of former Indian fast bowler and Punjabi actor Yograj Singh. He has won 7 Player of the Series awards in ODI cricket, which is joint 2nd highest by an Indian.

Yuvraj was a member of the Indian cricket team in One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 2000 and 2017 and played his first Test match in October 2003. He was the vice-captain of the Indian ODI team between 2007 and 2008.In a match against England at the 2007 World T20, he famously hit six sixes  in one over bowled by Staurt Broad— a feat performed only three times previously in any form of senior cricket, and never in an international match between two teams with Test Match Status.In the same match, he set the record for the fastest fifty in Twenty20 Internationals and in all T20 cricket, reaching 50 runs in 12 balls. During the 2011 World Cup, he became the first player to take a 5-wicket haul and score a 50 in the same World cup match.

Yuvraj Singh Career

Yuvraj was sent to Mumbai by his father to train at the Elf-Vengsarkar Cricket Academy. His strenuous training and hard work paid off when he was selected in the U-19 Punjab State Team . Yuvraj Singh’s first-class debut for Punjab against Orissa in the 1997-98 Ranji season. He was dismissed for a duck on his opening innings. In the U-19 Coach Behar Trophy final, Yuvi scored 358  against Bihar. The whole Bihar team together scored 357.

In the 1999-00 Ranji Trophy season, Singh scored brilliant innings of 149 against Haryana.  His good performances saw him picked for India U19 against Sri Lanka in February 1999. In 2000, Yuvraj was selected to play in the India U19 team at the U19 ICC Cricket Cup, Sri Lanka.

 Awards

In 2012, Yuvraj was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India’s second highest sporting award by the Government of India. In 2014, he was awarded the Padam Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour.In February 2014, he was honoured with FICCI Most Inspiring Sportsperson of the Year Award.

Indian Premier League

Yuvraj was the icon player and captain for Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings ) in the first two seasons; in 2010, the third season, icon player status was discontinued and the captaincy given to Kumar Sangakkara . The Kings XI Punjab came second in the Round phase of the tournament, but lost the semi-finals to the Chennai Super Kings . On 1 May 2009, Yuvraj registered his first hat-trick in T20 cricket against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Kingsmead in Durban , the same ground where he hit his six sixes. He dismissed  Robin Uthappa , Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis . On 17 May 2009, Yuvraj took his second Twenty 20 hat-trick against Deccan Chargers at the Wanderers Stadium  in Johannesburg. Yuvraj dismissed Harschelle Gibbs , Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao. At the 2014 IPL auction Royal Challengers Bangalore  bought Yuvraj for an all-time high price of ₹14 crore and, in 2015, the Delhi Daredevils  bought him for ₹16 crore making him the second most expensive player ever to be sold in the IPL until Chris Morris was sold to the Rajasthan Royals for a record ₹16.25 crore in February 2021.