Whenever England is beaten by India in any sphere, Indian pride rises many feet high. The British have, after all, looted India and made slave of us. Every Indian would like to avenge our humiliation. India’s resounding success against England in the first two one-dayers was, therefore, a special occasion and the spotlight was on Yuvraj Singh who humbled the Englishman by propelling India to the third spot.
Yuvi’s successive centuries catapulted him into the top 10 in the latest ICC ODI rankings. Yuvraj’s 11 places to attain his career best ranking of sixth place among batsmen. The two defeats cost England dearly as it slumped to the sixth spot.
Tall, well-built, Yuvraj Singh is India’s rising cricket star. Almost a year back when he smashed fast bowlers Stuart Broad in the test against England for six sixes in an over, the cricket world held its breath. One of India’s fine performers in the one-dayers for past five years, Yuvraj has been an enigma in Test cricket. His inconsistent run in the Tests since his debut over five years ago has seen him play just 23 matches.
Reports of Yuvraj taking Saurav Ganguly’s place in the Indian middle order got the stamp of approval from the man who matters the most — Chairman of national selectors, Krishnamachari Srikanth. Backing Yuvi to the coveted Test spot, he is quoted as saying he expected the flamboyant young man to replicate Saurav’s success in ODIs in the Test arena.
Yuvraj has the distinction of becoming an all rounder at 19. He proved his ability in the domestic competition and in the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. In the final of the Cooch Bihar Trophy in 1999-2000 season, Yuvi made 358 runs against Bihar. Any batsman who has the ability to play an innings of that length is bound to be a force to reckon with.
Following that performance, he caught the eyes of cricket player selectors; named the Player of the Series for scoring heavily through World Cup including a tremendous half century that came off just 20 balls in the semi-finals against Australia.
One of Yuvi’s most memorable innings was a partnership with Mohammad Kaif in the NatWest Series final against England in July 2002 which led India to victory. He represented India at the 2003 Cricket World Cup. He scored his first century in his fourth season with the Indian team against Bangladesh in 2003.
Yuvraj had a good run of form late in 2005 and early in 2006. He was named man of the series in three consecutive series, against South Africa and then against Pakistan and England, in which he scored three centuries and four half-centuries in fifteen matches, which pitch forked him into the top 10 of ICC ODI batting rankings.
During the Pakistan tour, at times when Captain Rahul Dravid and Vice-Captain Virender Sehwag were absent, Yuvi was on-field captain, indicating that he may be seen as a potential captain.
He made his test debut against New Zealand in Mohali in late 2003 in front of his home crowd in Punjab due to the absence of regular captain Saurav Ganguly in the sixth position. He was dropped when Ganguly returned but joined the Test team in 2004 tour of Pakistan, when Ganguly was again injured