Former India batsman Yuvraj Singh has decided to come out of retirement and play in domestic cricket for Punjab, and has written a letter to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly. The southpaw announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in June 2019 after that he featured in the Global T20 league in Canada and the T10 league in Dubai last year.
The Punjab team is going through a rebuilding phase and Yuvraj has built a good rapport with team members like Shubman Gill, Prabhsimran Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Abhishek Sharma and Harpreet Brar, after having taken a few closed-doors training sessions at the PCA stadium.
"I enjoyed spending time with these youngsters, and 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," Yuvraj was quoted by Cricbuzz.
"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."
Earlier, Puneet Bali, the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) secretary, has made a request to the veteran all-rounder to come out of retirement to play for the state team in the impending domestic season.
"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. Mr Puneet Bali, the secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association, approached me after one of the sessions and asked me if I would reconsider coming out of retirement."
"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 points out. "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," he added.
According to the report, Yuvraj has sent a mail to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, to seek their permission to come out of retirement.
Yuvraj has made it clear in the mail that if he is allowed to play for Punjab again, then he will not pursue his options of playing outside the country.
"As things stand now, I will be playing only T20s if I get the nod," Yuvraj observes. "But who knows, let's see," Yuvraj said.
