Yuvraj Singh confirms comeback plans after retirement

A little later after Yuvraj Singh announced his decision to retire from all formats of the game in June 2019, he has now announced that he will be back in action, playing at least Twenty-20 cricket for Punjab as and when the much delayed domestic season kicks off. He spent a fair bit of time in the last few months working with the young Punjab quartet of Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh at the PCA Stadium in Mohali at the behest of the Punjab Cricket Association. "I enjoyed spending time with these youngsters, and talking to them about various aspects of the game, I realized that they were able to pick up various things that I was telling them," Yuvraj said as he confirmed his comeback plans. "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." He added. "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." Puneet Bali said that since there were a lot of youngsters in the Punjab side, since they were already responding positively to Yuvraj's guidance and suggestions, since the star himself was in good shape physically and was batting as well as ever, it was a win-win for all. "Initially, I wasn't sure that I wanted to take up the offer," Yuvraj admits. "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. But I also couldn't ignore Mr. 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 said. Also Read | Japan official says Olympics must be held next year "at any cost" "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 stated. "As things stand now, I will be playing only T-20s if I get the nod, but who knows, let's see." He concluded. -PTC News