Bollywood wishes Yuvraj Singh a happy retirement after he calls it a day

Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who was the Man of the tournament of the 2011 World Cup, on Monday announced his retirement from international cricket at a press conference in Mumbai. The 37-year-old has been one of India’s most prolific players in limited-overs cricket and scored over 8,700 runs in 304 ODIs since making his international debut in 2000 when Sourav Ganguly was the skipper of the Indian side.

Yuvraj’s announcement came in the middle of yet another cricket World Cup and a number of former players including captain Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya congratulated him on his retirement. However, a number of other celebrities reacted with emotion as an entire generation of these young achievers had seen Yuvraj during his prime and found it difficult to believe that an era has eventually come to the end.

An inspiration to many, says Anushka Sharma

Among those celebrities who spoke out after hearing Yuvraj Singh’s decision is actor Varun Dhawan, Neha Dhupia, Anushka Sharma and others. Anushka, the wife of India captain Virat Kohli who had played with Yuvraj in the national team on several occasions, hailed Yuvraj as a “warrior and inspiration to many”.

It may be mentioned here that the Punjab cricketer has been a role model for not just his cricketing skills and feats but also because of the fact that he has been a cancer survivor who beat the threat to return to the 22 yards and continued with his game. His last international hundred – a 150 against England in Cuttack in January 2017, the same year that he had played last for India – is a testimony of his resilience.

Neha Dhupia who shared pictures of her actor husband Angad Bedi, son of former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi, with Yuvraj and captioned it saying the former left-hander will remain one of her favourite cricketers in days to come.

Yuvraj, while announcing his retirement, said it has been 19 years since he has been playing and he was confused with his career and how he would end it. He also said that he would have been happier had he got to play more games in the Indian Premier League 2019. Yuvraj ended up playing only a few games for the Mumbai Indians in the tournament despite scoring a fifty in his first game.

Here are some of the tweets: