T10 League 2019: Organizers eyeing Yuvraj Singh for this year’s edition

Dashing left-hand cricketer Yuvraj Singh brought the limelight on him while India were playing the World Cup in England this June. The 37-year-old announced his decision of quitting international cricket, leaving the sport’s fraternity sad for he is one of the best the limited-format of the game has seen. But after his retirement from international cricket, Yuvraj continues to be a favourite for the franchises. He recently led Toronto Nationals to the playoffs of Global T20 Canada and now organisers of Abu Dhabi T10 League have set their eyes on the man.

The organizers are looking to rope in the explosive batsman for the next season in November and Shaji ul Mulk, the chairman and founder of the league, known to be the shortest format so far, confirmed the development. He even said that they are planning to sign up as many as 16 former India cricketers for the upcoming edition.

The current year will see the third edition of the tournament. In 2017, Kerala Kings (earlier Knights) won the title under Eoin Morgan while in 2018, Darren Sammy’s Northern Warriors bagged the crown. Noted former India players like Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and others have played in this competition in the previous editions.

“Our focus is to get Yuvraj Singh on board. The talks are on, and we are confident of signing him up for the league,” Sportstar quoted Mulk, who was in Mumbai on Friday, as saying.

Yuvraj has immense experience in T20 cricket

Yuvraj, who was the man of the series of the 2011 World Cup that India won, scored only one half-century in the Global T20 Canada but he has a sea of experience in T20 cricket. Yuvraj has played 231 T20s scoring nearly 5,000 runs and taking 80 wickets.

Yuvraj, who played a key role in India’s 2011 World Cup win, retired from international cricket in June. That helped him feature in franchise-based leagues, and he featured in the Global T20 in Canada.

Mulk said after a number of Indian names featured in the competition last year, they are in negotiation with some other ‘big names’ for this year. Besides Sehwag and Zaheer, Pravin Tambe, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, S Badrinath and others have also played in the T10 League.

The tournament will be held at Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi between November 15 and 24.

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