Why Yuvraj Singh can make life difficult for West Indies
Yuvraj Singh is today considered one of the lynchpins of the Indian middle order. He is a left handed batsman and has taken the stage by storm since his debut in 2000. He is the son of former India cricket Yograj Singh. He holds the record of hitting six sixes in one over in the T20 format of the game, being the only cricketer to have done so.
He made his ODI debut in 2000 but had to wait till 2003 to make his Test match debut for India. Till the end of the 2009-10 season, he has represented India in 246 ODIs scoring 7323 runs at a consistent batting average of 37.55. He has also featured in 31 Tests for India scoring 1545 runs, with a high score of 169 runs. He is also quite a handy left arm bowler especially in the ODI format having scalped 78 wickets.
Yuvraj Singh came into the spotlight as he captained the Under-19 Punjab team in the final of the Cooch Behar Trophy in January 2000 and then was selected in the India Under-19 team for the World Cup in Bangladesh. He was part of the tournament winning team under Mohammad Kaif and later that year found his way into the senior side.
He made a blistering start to his international career helping India beat Australia in the ICC Knock Out in Kenya in October 2000 as he scored a quick fire 84 off 82 balls. He fell into a lean run of form and was dropped from the team late in 2001 before returning once again into the side in 2002. In the same year he was involved in a match wining partnership with Mohammad Kaif at Lord’s as India chased down a huge 325 for victory in the Natwest series. He was then part of the winning Indian squad for the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka in September 2002 and also for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa where the team finished second in the final.
He scored his maiden ODI ton early in 2004 in a tri-series involving Australia and Zimbabwe in Australia. He again had a lean run with the bat and was in and out of the side, before returning in the summer of 2005 for the Indian Oil Cup in Sri Lanka where he got his third ODI ton against the West Indies and made angry gestures towards the media box and the dressing room.
Since then he has enjoyed a good run of form especially in the ODI format where he was man of the series in three consecutive series, against South Africa and then against Pakistan and England, in which he scored three centuries and four half-centuries in fifteen matches, which propelled him into the top ten of the ICC ODI batting rankings. In the summer series in the West Indies, Yuvraj hit two fifties in four games, even though India lost the series 4-1. His performance was recognised with his shortlisting by the ICC as one of four nominees for the Internation One Day player of the year award.
Meanwhile Yuvraj had made his Test debut for India only in 2003 due to lack of spots in the middle order. But soon it had become too much to ignore him any further and he first played against New Zealand in place of the injured Sourav Ganguly. He made his maiden Test ton against Pakistan in 2004 but then again had to wait for a long time to get a regular spot in the side. That happened when Ganguly lost his captaincy and he became a permanent feature of the side under Rahul Dravid. His best Test knock at that juncture came against Pakistan in Pakistan in early 2006, where India lost despite his best efforts.
Later that year a knee injury took his form away from him and both his and the team’s fortunes suffered a lot in that sense. He missed the tour of South Africa but somehow managed to get onto the squad for the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. However poor showing in that tournament cast further questions on his career. They were answered in full later on in the inaugural T20 World Cup as he was in sizzling hot form to help India take the crown. He hit Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over during India’s match against England and then led the way with the bat against Australia guiding the team into the finals.
He was back in the Test side for the home series against Pakistan where he got his career best score of 169 at Bangalore before losing the spot on the tour of Australia in 2008. However Sourav Ganguly’s retirement that same year meant that he has now become an integral part of the middle order in both Test and ODI cricket, while his importance in the T20 format cannot be sidelines.
He was chosen as the ICON player by the Kings XI Punjab franchise to lead their team in the Indian Premier League. But his performance in three seasons since then has been less than satisfactory. He has done Ok in the T20 World cup so far but is still far from his usual best. He is going to be a key in today's game.
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