Yuvraj Singh: The return of a sleeping giant

It is better to term Yuvraj Singh as a sleeping giant. And no one can say when the giant will return. Since his return from the United States of America after his treatment completed, Yuvraj Singh has been inconsistent in the 50 over format but it is difficult to rule him out of form in the shortest format of the game.

In the four games played in the World T20 2014 so far, Yuvraj was completely out of sorts in the first two and didn’t have to bat against Bangladesh as Dhoni promoted himself up the order. Earlier in the tournament, Dhoni said that Yuvraj has always been a match winner and he didn’t doubt his capabilities, and is expected to hit the form before the knock-outs.

As India batted first against Australia, and Yuvraj Singh was given another go ahead of Shikhar Dhawan, the southpaw found himself at the crease evn before the 10th over of the match. With India struggling against the spin of Muirhead and Maxwell at 66-4 and Yuvraj struggling at 13 runs off 21 balls, he provided the first signs of a confident batsman with a front-foot off drive.

Slowly but steadily, Yuvraj moved to 33 runs from 30 balls before he blasted on the Australian bowlers. Muirhead, the best spinner of the Australian team in the World Twenty20 was not spared and Yuvraj took 15+ runs from his over. He was supported well by his captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who helped himself to 24 before being dismissed.

This was Yuvraj’s 3rd T20 50 against Australia and he has already become the devil for the Kangaroo nation in the shorter format, as Laxman was in the longer format. to begin with, Yuvraj first knocked out Australia out of the ICC Knock-Out Cup in 2000, followed it with another blow in the ICC World T20 2007 before applying the knock-out punch in ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

Also in his comeback T20 match in 2013, Yuvraj scored 77 runs against the same opposition in Rajkot and further added salt to the wounds with his 43-ball 60 last night. With this defeat, Australia now face stern competition from Bangladesh to remain winless in the World T20 2014.

En-route to his 60, Yuvraj Singh has surpassed Gautam Gambhir by 7 runs to become the highest run-scorer for India in the shortest format of the game. Apart from that Yuvi is also the second highest wicket-taker for India in this format behind Irfan Pathan.

Let us have a look at Yuvraj’s T20I stats:

The stats speak themselves that Yuvraj is a complete T20 package. First of all he has got a decent average with a swash-buckling strike rate with the bat. Secondly, he doesn’t concede too much runs with the ball and also scalps wickets at a decent rate. Explaining him I remember a dialogue from a movie:

Aam aadmi sota hua sher hain. Ungli mat kar…. jaag gaya toh chiir phaad dega…

It means that a common man is a sleeping lion. Don’t finger him. If he wakes up, destruction is assured. The innings was a reply to all his critics who questioned his ability to perform. We expect Yuvraj to keep his performance consistent and help India win the ICC World T20 after a period of 7 years.