Yuvraj Singh’s poor form with the bat continued against Mumbai Indians. (Source: IPL)
Kings XI Punjab returned to face Mumbai Indians in Indian Premier League on Friday after a week’s break and the in-form side was expected to start off on a winning note against the struggling Rohit Sharma’s side. But things for Ravichandran Ashwin-led unit did not turn out as planned as Mumbai went on to register a solid 6-wicket victory as they chased down the total of 174. After the defeat, skipper Ashwin said that their side was at least 15 runs short.
The onus for the dip in the run rate was blamed by the fans on all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, who was bought for his base price of Rs 2 core at this year’s auction. The left-hand batsman has had a terrible season so far, scoring only 64 runs in 5 innings at an average of 12.80. But on Friday, he did something even worse. The 2011 World Cup Man-of-the-Tournament scored only 14 runs in 14 balls, taking his total strike rate to 91.42 in this season, which is the worst for any player who has faced 50 or more balls in IPL 2018.
Yuvraj was run out for 14 by Evin Lewis and the critics questioned his promotion in the batting order over Karun Nair. The all-rounder was sent in the no. third position after the dismissal of KL Rahul on 24 in the 7th over. But Yuvraj failed to make the most of the opportunity and slowed down the run rate, which eventually hurt KXIP later down in the innings.
With perhaps his worst IPL season so far, the fans slammed the batsman and said that maybe he should announce his retirement.
Kent water purifier ad is the only place where I saw Yuvraj Singh hitting a boundary this season. #KXIPvMI
— Ankit Mishra (@ankitTrump) 4 May 2018
Time for Yuvraj Singh to co host commentary section with Irfan Pathan and Mohammed Kaif…
— Mayur (@Mayurgoakar) 5 May 2018
Emerging players of #IPL2018:
Shubman Gill
Mayank Makrande
Deepak Chahar
Jofra ArcherSubmerging players after #IPL2018
Yuvraj Singh
Ravinder Jadeja
Ben Stokes
Keiron Pollard#IPL— అరె థాయ్🗣 (@K3K_cube) 5 May 2018
Before the start of the IPL season, Yuvraj was touted to be one of the contenders to lead Kings XI Punjab before R Ashwin’s name was announced. Speaking to reporters, team mentor Virender Sehwag also said that Yuvraj Singh was one of the names that were discussed to be the skipper. But with his continuous poor performances, it is highly likely the Punjab player might find it hard now to be included in the playing XI in KXIP’s remaining matches.