Yuvraj Singh: The 'superhero' who won two World Cup titles for India

As Yuvraj called time on International cricket, the star hitter will never be forgotten for giving India two World Cup titles in 2011 and 2007. The elegant Southpaw was India's 2011 World Cup hero which he won while suffering from a rare germ cell cancer and the other one while coughing blood

One of India's greatest ODI cricketers, Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement from all formats of cricket on Monday. The elegant Southpaw from the beautiful city of Chandigarh could never really track the Test code but remain an enigma when it comes to the 50-overs format of the game. As Yuvraj called time on International cricket, the star hitter will never be forgotten for giving India two World Cup titles in 2011 and 2007. Yuvraj was India's 2011 World Cup hero which he won while suffering from a rare germ cell cancer and the other one while coughing blood. In terms of impact, Yuvraj's 300 plus runs and 15 wickets was gold standard performance during the 2011 World Cup. The left-hander’s uniqueness was his pure brute power, strength and grace that gave him an extra edge. It was not just his batting that was unadulterated joy; his off the field persona made him a fascinating character and his power to remain relevant in the best and worst of times made him a ‘crowd puller’. Being the son of a pushy father Yograj Singh, Yuvraj Singh had to become a cricketer and that too a bloody good one. Yuvraj had to put his favourite roller skates (he was an age group champion) in the junkyard to fulfill his father’s unrealised dreams. It’s might not be wrong to say that Yuvraj initially lived his father's dream. The hard-hitting left hander was the man of big occasions, who never failed to bring his A game in testing situations; whether the Natwest final at Lord's, the six sixes off Stuart Broad in a must-win World T20 game in Durban or the quarter final half century against Australia at Ahmedabad, he could bring his A game to the fore in testing situations. In that Indian line-up, barring Virender Sehwag, no one hit the ball harder than Yuvraj. Had he not hit those six sixes, God knows what exactly would have Lalit Modi marketed and how big a tournament Indian Premier League would have been. Yet it will remain a mystery as to why he couldn't deliver in IPL. Teams would empty their coffers to buy him only to be left high and dry. The technical problems stayed in Yuvraj’s batting but he was able to build his game around that and the 300-plus ODIs bear testimony to his ability. By the time he could have got settled in the side, he was fighting the biggest battle. The battle of life, cancer. "It was like touching the sky and then falling down at light speed and hitting the ground hard. All this happened so quickly," said Yuvraj. His story post 2011 was a triumph of life rather than achievements on the cricket field. Ill health took its toll and he was never the same player again. In the 2014 World T20 final on a slow Mirpur track, his 11 off 21 balls was the biggest reason for India's defeat against Sri Lanka. He did make those sporadic comebacks but his fitness standards had dropped and the 2017 Champions Trophy was where his epitaph was written. Still, Yuvraj was, is and will remain one of India's greatest ODI cricketers. His name would always be taken in the same breath as Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Virat Kohli. No one can take that away from him.