On the occasion of Yuvraj Singh’s birthday on December 12, wishes flew from all corners of the country. However, one birthday wish that hasn’t gone down too well with fans is from Gautam Gambhir. The former India opener, who played crucial knocks in the 2007 T20 World Cup final and the 2011 World Cup final, in a tweet, called Yuvraj ‘the best white-ball cricketer India has produced’, and while it is a wonderful compliment, certain fans took exception to it and did not agree with Gambhir’s take.
With almost 10,000 runs across ODIs and T20Is, Yuvraj was easily one of India’s greatest match-winners of all time, but to call him the best-ever is a subject of debate. Indian cricket have produced some of the most majestic cricketers – from Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble MS Dhoni to Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah – and some of these have piled on records unheard of. So while Yuvraj is certainly one of the best India have produced, to rank him above all is something fans didn’t exactly agree with. Some fans even pointed out a tweet from before when Gambhir had used the exact words for Rohit Sharma on his birthday as well.
Yuvraj, who made his India debut in 2000 Champions Trophy in Nairobi, and signalled his arrival with a solid knock of 84 – a knock that is still arguably the best non-century innings on debut – went on to become a two-time World Cup winner. In the first-ever T20 World Cup, Yuvraj lit up the tournament with back-to-face half-centuries against England – where he famously hit those six sixes in an over off Stuart Broad – and then against Australia in the semifinal.
Yuvraj’s stocks skyrocketed from there and for the next four years, he was at the top of his game, and his glorious form culminated with India winning the 2011 World Cup, in which the former all-rounder was named Player of the Series for scoring 362 runs and picking up 14 wickets. During the tournament, Yuvraj became the first player to score a fifty and grab a five-for in the same match in the history of the World Cup, and with tha bat, his innings against West Indies and against Australia in the quarterfinal were game-changers.
After the World Cup, Yuvraj was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer, but like a fighter pulled through it. He returned for India in 2012 but just wasn’t the same player as before. Battling form and fitness, Yuvraj was in and out of the team and missed the flight to Australia and New Zealand for the 2015 World Cup. In 2017, Yuvraj scored his first century for India since the 2011 World Cup, when he blasted 150 – his highest score in ODIs – against England. A few months later, Yuvraj played his last match for India – against West Indies – before announcing his retirement in 2019.