Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh has reportedly confirmed that he will come out of retirement to play for Punjab and has written to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), after a request from the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA). The Player of the Tournament at the 2011 World Cup, Yuvraj had announced his retirement from all formats of the game in June 2019.
PCA secretary Puneet Bali was the first person to approach the 38-year-old Yuvraj with an offer to come out of retirement for the benefit of Punjab cricket. He has agreed to resume for the state at least in the T20 format. According to reports, Yuvraj has said that the motive behind his letter to the BCCI is "to help Punjab win championships.”
The left-handed dasher spent a fair amount of time nurturing the young Punjab starlets Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh, and Anmolpreet Singh at the PCA stadium in Mohali after the PCA requested him to do so. Reports state that it was during this stint with the youngsters that Yuvraj realised he had more to give back to the game that gave him so much.
Yuvraj told Cricbuzz on Wednesday afternoon that he enjoyed spending time with the youngsters. He said,"Talking to them about various aspects of the game, I realised that they were able to pick up various things that I was telling them.”
"I had to get into the nets to show them a few other elements, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was hitting the ball even though I hadn't held a bat for a really long time. I also trained for those two months, and then I started to bat in the off-season camp. I made runs in some of the practice matches,” Yuvraj said, talking about his plans to come out of retirement.
Until Punjab's off-season camp started, Yuvraj is reported to have spent his time playing golf and tennis during the lockdown.
Yuvraj said the secretary of the PCA, Puneet Bali approached him after one of the sessions and asked him if he could consider coming out of retirement.
"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,” Yuvraj said.
He also said he couldn't ignore Bali's request. "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,” Yuvraj added.
When asked about the potential of Punjab cricket, he said, "Obviously, Shubman is already playing for India, and I feel there's plenty of potential in the other three boys. If I can contribute in any way to their development and to the development of Punjab cricket, then that will be wonderful. After all, playing for Punjab is what paved the way for my international career."
The cricketer also confirmed that he will continue to play T20 cricket if given a chance. "As things stand now, I will be playing only T20s if I get the nod. But who knows, let's see,” he said.