Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) has requested former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh to come out of retirement and become a player-cum-mentor of the state team. The legendary batsman brought down curtains on his cricket career last year. And while he recently stated that he would like to play in international leagues, Yuvraj Singh is yet to respond to PCA’s request.
PCA Secretary Puneet Bali on Friday said he had made the request since Yuvraj Singh was already mentoring some players, including Shubman Gill.
“We requested Yuvraj five, six days ago and we are awaiting his response. It will be really good for Punjab cricket if he can play and mentor them at the same time,” said Bali told PTI.
Last year, the World Cup-winner spent time mentoring the likes of Gill, Anmolpreet Singh, Abhishek Sharma and Harpreet Brar, all of whom are set to play in the upcoming IPL in UAE. Recently, Yuvraj Singh also spoke about Gill and tipped him for a bright future in international cricket.
Punjab has lost a number of key players in recent years and Bali said the state team can benefit from Yuvraj Singh’s experience and mentoring. For Yuvraj Singh, however, coming out of retirement might not be easy. The BCCI considers players to have officially retired to provide NOCs for overseas leagues. And the former cricketer had taken NOCs from the BCCI last year to play in two such tournaments – the Global T20 Canada and Abu Dhabi T10 League.
Punjab will be hoping that Yuvraj Singh accepts their request. The legendary cricketer is considered as one of India’s greatest match-winners. The hero of the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 World Cup, played 40 Tests and 304 ODIs between 2003 and 2017, scoring over 11,000 runs and picking up 227 wickets.