Yuvraj Singh: The former Indian all-rounder has been asked to play domestic cricket once again to help the younger lot of players.
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Chandigarh in Ranji Trophy and Canada otherwise – places starting with the alphabet ‘C’ are enticing exodus from Punjab. In the eight Ranji Trophy matches that Punjab played in the last season, they handed debuts to players on six occasions.
By the end of the season, the likes of Ramandeep Singh, Krishan Alang, Rohan Marwaha, Arshdeep Singh, Sharad Lumba, Anmol Malhotra, Ashwani Kumar, Karan Kaila and Akul Pandove had made their first-class debuts for Punjab.
A primary reason behind the inclusion of these many rookie players was that Chandigarh got their own team under Union Territory Cricket Association. Players from Chandigarh who had represented Punjab or were aspiring to do so now play/aspire for Chandigarh because of the development.
In the recent years, players such as Manan Vohra, Bipul Sharma, Uday Kaul, Barinder Sran, Jiwanjot Singh, Taruwar Kohli and Arpit Pannu have all played for other states after representing Punjab. In addition to these names, Shubman Gill and Siddarth Kaul don’t get to play all matches for Punjab due to their India or India A duties.
Puneet Bali wants Yuvraj Singh to come out of retirement
It is due to the aforementioned change that PCA (Punjab Cricket Association) secretary Puneet Bali wants former India and Punjab all-rounder Yuvraj Singh come out of retirement and represent Punjab in domestic cricket.
“These boys [Shubman Gill, Prabhsimran Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Abhishek Sharma and Harpreet Brar] were all undergoing sessions with our physios and trainers to prepare [for the upcoming domestic season]. Yuvraj [Singh] initiated sessions with these boys while he was in Chandigarh.
“Over the last couple of seasons, we’ve lost players to other states, many of our players to Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh and Himachal. So, we felt a player of Yuvraj’s experience and calibre could lend a lot of value and inspire the youngsters,” Bali was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
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Yuvraj had last played for Punjab across formats during the 2018-19 domestic season. After playing four matches in IPL 2019, the southpaw decided to call time on his career. While Bali has requested the 38-year old player to play all formats, he is certain to readily welcome Yuvraj even if he makes himself available for a particular format.
“The request I made was for him to consider playing all formats. But if he comes back to and says, he’s available only for limited-overs cricket, for some reason, that will be fine too. I’m looking forward to hear from him soon. But as such, he’s been working hard with the boys,” Bali added.
Post his retirement from international cricket last year, Yuvraj captained Toronto Nationals in the second season of the Global T20 League 2019 and represented Maratha Arabians in the Abu Dhabi T10 League. It would be interesting to see how BCCI goes ahead with Yuvraj’s comeback (if it happens) for the board only gives NOCs to retired players when it comes to playing overseas T20 leagues.
The two-time World Cup winner also traveled to Australia to take part in the Bushfire relief match in addition to playing for India Legends in the Road Safety World Series this year.
