THE WARRIOR PRINCE

"After 25 years in and around the 22 yards and almost 17 years of international cricket on and off, I have decided to move on," said an emotional Yuvraj Singh on Monday, June 10, in a press conference in Mumbai. So not his way of drawing the curtains on a most decorated limited-overs cricket career – away from the limelight. Beneath the six-hitting party-boy, there lived a young man who overcame a childhood witnessing estrangement between his parents, and the desires of a demanding father, yet retaining his humour and humanity. He has an exceptional ability to recollect past experience in tranquility and laugh at himself – without being afraid of his vulnerabilities and anxieties.

Born in a Sikh jat family to Yograj Singh, a former India cricketer, and Shabnam Singh, Yuvraj had the knack for sports even when very young. At a tender age, he won the National Under-14 Roller Skating Championship, but his authoritarian father threw away the medal and told him to forget skating and concentrate on cricket – marking the beginning of his tryst with full-time cricket.

Yuvraj made his first-class debut in late-1997 against Orissa during the 1997–98 Ranji Trophy but was dismissed for a duck opening the innings. His first breakout performance came in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy Final of 1999 – amassing 358 runs to help Punjab beat Bihar. In the 2000 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, India won the tournament for the first time on the back of Yuvraj's all-round performance – earning him the Player of the Tournament award and a call-up to the national squad. Since then, it has been a journey that not many would have undertook.

During the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy (now known as Champions Trophy), Yuvraj made his ODI debut against Kenya but didn't get the chance to bat. His first chance to bat arrived in the quarter-finals against Steve Waugh's Australia that boasted a pace attack comprising Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie. To everyone's surprise, the southpaw stole the limelight from the in-form pair of Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, and returned back with a score of 84 and more importantly, handed a 20 run defeat to the Aussies.

A string of bad performances had cost his place in the team and Yuvraj returned to playing domestic cricket in early 2002. It took him about three years to find his mojo back but by then, India had a consolidated middle-order including Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. He did make it to the squads of the 2003 and 2007 World Cup teams, but India lost on both instances. By 2007, Indian cricket was in transition, and Yuvraj was handed the vice-captaincy for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup. Little did anyone doubt his hitting abilities but he made a statement by hitting Stuart Broad (England) for six sixes in an over – notching the fastest fifty in any international format.

Apart from his batting and bowling abilities, Yuvraj, during the first half of his career, had been a live wire on the field. He along with Mohammad Kaif formed a formidable cordon at point and gully which, to a great extent, was responsible for the higher standards we witness in Indian fielding today.

Yuvraj had a dream run at the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he scored 362 runs including one century and four fifties, took 15 wickets, won four Man-of-the-Match awards and was also awarded the Player of the Tournament. In the process, he became the first all-rounder to score 300-plus runs and take 15 wickets in a single World Cup. He also became the first player to take ffive wickets and score 50 runs in a World Cup match. Without Yuvraj, India probably would not have had their hands on the World Cup after 28 years – since 1983.

No one knew that the purple patch would soon be gone and his World Cup high would be sobered. Yuvraj had respiratory difficulties through 2011 and he withdrew from the ODI series in West Indies citing an abnormal tumor in his lung. His issues began with breathing difficulties, nausea and bouts of vomiting blood before India's successful run in the World Cup. Post the World Cup, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor stage-1 in his left lung.

Winning the 2011 World Cup, being man of the series, four Man-of-the-Match awards was all like a dream, which was followed by a harsh reality – getting diagnosed with cancer. It was like touching the sky and then falling down at lightning speed to hit the ground with a backbreaking thump – it all happened too quickly and that too, at the peak of his career.

In March 2012, Yuvraj was discharged from hospital after completing the third and final cycle of chemotherapy and returned to India in April. After his chemotherapy sessions treating seminoma in Indianapolis, Yuvraj's cancer showed full signs of remission and he aimed at resuming cricket at the World Twenty20. He returned in national colours, but his World Cup aura as an all-rounder was of lesser threat. Since then, has has performed in patches only to help himself be in the loop of the national team.

His worst day in cricket career was the 2014 Twenty20 World Cup final against Sri Lanka when he scored 11 off 21 balls. Social media trolled him and stones were pelted at his residence. Yuvraj yet again ffell low to only rise higher. Later that year, he recorded his highest ODI score of 150. He remains one of the finest limited-overs specialists donning the national jersey. The white-ball legend, red-ball dreamer and pie-chucker would be apt to describe the boy from Punjab's illustrative career.

Though there have been discussions on Yuvraj playing a farewell match, he has denied any such possibility and will not even be available for the Indian Premier League. Instead, he urged that it is time to move on. The last glimpse of Yuvraj, the elegant southpaw, would probably be seen in some Twenty20 league around the world, for which he remains available.

He has scored 10,601 international runs including 17 centuries and 71 half-centuries. He has also accounted for 148 wickets in 400-plus matches for India. In 2012, the heroics of the World Cup had earned him the the Arjuna Award. Later in 2014, he was also conferred with the Padma Shri.