Dear Yuvraj Singh!
Greetings!
You have nothing to prove now as time and time again you have already proven your worth and threw the light on the famous saying, “age is just a number”. When lastly I watched the movie based on Indian ODI skipper, MS Dhoni, though being on Dhoni, I saw the glimpses of your early cricketing career. It is heart-wrenching to see you struggling in the routine arena since you smacked your last hundred on 18th January 2017 to be precise. But the struggle of getting selected in the blue jersey again is just one part of your struggle. On the contrary, you’re the towering personality with whom multiple search engines are filled with your content with the millions of your ardent fans who prayed for your recovery during your lean phase when you were going through a fatal disease of cancer. Whether famous six consecutive sixes to Stuart Broad on his soil to 2011 World Cup heroics, whenever you were smashing sixes on the ground, umpires were doing a regular exercise while as the fielders were acting as mute spectators. You have held the Indian batting fortress upright for more than ten years and being one of your diehard fans I’m thankful for you to do that. Nobody had a belief that you will join the team after cancer but you fought and did justice with the term “fighter”.
Dear Yuvi, you held the Indian batting nerve when everyone expected it to fall post-retirement of some greats like Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. Not only that, you were Jhonty Rhodes for your fans and to me, you were better than him. It was always great to watch you guarding the point region. You may be a part-time bowler to some of your fans, but I always treated you as an all-rounder with your Midas kind of touch in 2011 World Cup which helped India to earn the tag of champions after 28 years. From three consecutive fifties to four times consecutive two wickets, it’s because of you, India provided a suitable farewell to the god of cricket. Though superficially, it seems impossible how a man who vomits blood can do such wonders you showed that you had the nerves of steel.
Like all the cricketers you too had ups and downs in your cricketing career. And the innings which you played against Sri Lanka at World Cup was among those drubbing innings of your career. It was not justified at all and as expected it didn’t go down we to all the Indian supporters as you were at the receiving end to face their wrath. I imagine how hard it would have been for you to go through such patches. Nevertheless, it followed some handy knocks especially at IPL which provided an optimistic feeling to your fans that you’re not done yet and still there are some flashes left. As we were moving closer and closer to the last edition of T20 World Cup, I strongly hoped that before that you will make a comeback and end this T20 World Cup as a fairy tale. As they say, ‘He planned, you planned and He’s the best planner’.
In the end, I would like to say thanks for providing us with an opportunity to witness India lifting a World Cup. Thanks for all those sixes and other splendid moments. Thanks for all the amusement and recreation.
Yours sincerely,
An Ardent fan
Syed Yasir
