Yuvraj Singh (12 December 1981) is a former Indian international cricketer. In ODI cricket, he’s won 7 Player of the Series awards.
Early Life
He was born on 12 December 1981, in Chandigarh, India. During his childhood, Yuvraj loved tennis and roller skating and was pretty good at them. He won the National Under-14 Roller Skating Championship too. His dad threw away the medal and told him to focus on cricket instead. Yuvraj would go to training every day with him.
He went to DAV Public School in Chandigarh. He graduated from DAV College, Panjab University, Chandigarh, with a commerce degree. Also, he played two short roles as a child star in Mehndi Sagna Di and Putt Sardara.
Career
In November 1995, Yuvraj was 13 years old when he started playing for Punjab Under-16s against Jammu and Kashmir Under-16s. In 1996–97, he scored 137 not out for Punjab Under-19s against Himachal Pradesh Under-19s.
In 1997, Yuvraj made his first-class debut against Orissa in the 1997-98 Ranji Trophy, but he got out for a duck. He hit his first big hit in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy Final of 1999 against Bihar in Jamshedpur; Bihar scored 357 and Yuvraj made 358 runs for Punjab. In February 1999, Yuvraj played for India against Sri Lanka Under-19s. He scored 149 against Haryana in the 1999-2000 Ranji Trophy.
Yuvraj was named Player of the Tournament at the 2000 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which India won under captain Mohammad Kaif. He scored 68 off 62 and 4/36 against New Zealand in a group-stage match, and 58 off 25 balls against Australia in the semifinals.
Indian Team
On October 3rd, 2000, he made his ODI debut for the Indian squad against Kenya. He scored 84 against Australia, 41 against South Africa, and took one wicket, but was dropped after the subsequent Tri Series.
In 2001, he scored 98-not-out and took 8 wickets against Sri Lanka in the Coca-Cola Cup. In March 2002, he scored 209 in the Duleep Trophy. He played two match-winning knocks of 80-not-out and 75 when India was losing 1-2 to Zimbabwe in one-day series.
He scored his first century against Bangladesh on 11 April 2003. After Sachin Tendulkar, he became the second Indian cricketer to play for Yorkshire County Cricket Club in May 2003.
In 2003, he made his Test debut against New Zealand.
He was named vice-captain of the Indian team for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, where he hit six sixes in one over of Stuart Broad.
The best performance he had was at the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he scored 362 runs, including a century and four fifties, and took 15 wickets. In September 2012, he returned to the crease for the ICC World Twenty20 after months of treatment for a stage-1 cancerous tumor in his lung.
After his excellent performance in Vijay Hazare Trophy, he was called up to India’s T20 squad for the Australia tour in January 2016. As a result of his 672 runs in five Ranji Trophy games, he got selected for the ODI series against England in January 2017, where he ran 150 runs, a career-best.
Awards and Achievements
The fastest half-century in the history of the ICC World Twenty20 was made by Yuvraj Singh against England during the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.
The government of India honored him with the Arjuna Award in 2012
In 2014, he was awarded the Padma Shri award, by the government of India.