'I wanted him to play even when he was spitting blood' - Yograj Singh on Yuvraj's struggle with cancer

The Indian team has given birth to a number of heroes and one of those is former star all-rounder Yuvraj Singh. The phenomenal southpaw played 402 international matches, scoring 11,778 runs and scalping 148 wickets. Without a doubt, Yuvraj played many match-winning knocks for the team across formats.

Yuvraj Singh’s cricketing journey is one of the most inspiring stories where he not only showed a lot of fight on the field but off the field as well when he was battling cancer. He later went on to make a comeback into the side as well.

Yuvraj had a dream run in the 2011 World Cup which was also the first time he showed some symptoms of cancer during a group-stage match against the West Indies against whom he scored a century and took a couple of wickets. Many stories were told about his battle with cancer especially by his father and former India cricketer Yograj Singh. Yograj recently stated that he would have been proud of Yuvraj even if he had died on the field while winning the cup for his nation.

Also Read: MS Dhoni was a fearless man and a motivated captain: Yograj Singh

“For our country, if Yuvraj Singh had died from cancer and had won India the World Cup, I would have been a proud father. I still am very proud of him. I have told him this over the phone as well. I wanted him to play even when he was spitting blood. I told him, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t die. Win this World Cup for India,'” said Yograj on Unfiltered by Samdish.

Yuvraj’s dream run in the 2011 World Cup

The 2011 World Cup was one of the highlights of Yuvraj’s career where he scored 362 runs in nine matches with four half-centuries and a solitary century to his name. He averaged 90.50 throughout the tournament and played an incredible knock against Australia in the quarter-finals as well.

Yuvraj did not only perform with the bat but made contributions with the ball as well. He took 15 wickets in the tournament and was the second-highest wicket-taker for India after Zaheer Khan. His best figures were 5/31 which came against Ireland.