Yuvraj Singh brings down curtains on glittering international career

India's 2011 World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement from international cricket at a media interaction in Mumbai on Monday.

One of India's greatest limited overs cricketers, Yuvraj is reportedly keen to pursue a freelance career in ICC-approved foreign Twenty20 leagues.

"He would like to speak to the BCCI and get more clarity on plying his trade in tournaments like GT20 (Canada), Euro T20 Slam in Ireland and Holland as he has offers," a senior BCCI official recently told PTI.

The 37-year-old was a key member of the Indian teams that won the World T20 in 2007 and the World Cup in 2011.

His most memorable performance in an India shirt came against England in the World T20 in South Africa in 2007 when he smashed a hapless Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over. In the process, he reached the fastest fifty ever in any form of international cricket, off just 12 balls.

Yuvraj also had a dream run at the 2011 World Cup, amassing 362 runs including one century and four fifties. He also picked 15 wickets, won four Man-of-the-Match awards and was also awarded the Player of the Tournament. In the process, he became the first all-rounder to score 300-plus runs and take 15 wickets in a single edition of the showpiece event.

After the World Cup, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his left lung and underwent chemotherapy treatment in Boston and Indianapolis. While he did make a return to the national team post recovery, life was never the same and he became an on and off member of the Indian team.

In 2012, he was conferred with the Arjuna Award and two years later, he was awarded the Padma Shri. At the 2014 IPL auctions, Royal Challengers Bangalore bought Yuvraj for an all-time high price of Rs 14 crore and in 2015, the Delhi Daredevils bought him for Rs 16 crore making him the most expensive player ever to be sold in the cash-rich league.

In all, Yuvraj played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is for India in which he scored 1900, 8701 and 1177 runs respectively. He last played a Test match for India in 2012, while his final appearance in ODIs and T20Is came in 2017.

In the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League, he had almost gone unsold before Mumbai Indians grabbed him at his base price. He played only four matches for the franchise scoring 98 runs with one half-century.

(With agency inputs)