Full name Yuvraj Singh
Born December 12, 1981, Chandigarh
Current age 29 years 38 days
Playing role Middle-order batsman
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Slow left-arm orthodox
Relation Father - B Yograj Singh
Major teams India, Asia XI, Kings XI Punjab, Punjab, Yorkshire
Yuvraj Singh Profile
When all is well with Yuvraj Singh, he hits the ball as clean and long as it has ever been hit. When all is not well, he looks so awkward you forget he can hit the ball clean and long. All is well with Yuvraj more often in limited-overs cricket, where he can be effortless and brutal at the same time, than in Tests. When he started off his athleticism on the field and his canny left-arm spin made him a dream one-day player as Indian cricket went through a makeover at the turn of the century.
Yuvraj's father, Yograj, who played one Test for India, was what Mike Agassi was to Andre. So obsessed was he with Yuvraj's cricket that he took a skating gold medal off his young son's neck and threw it out of the car. "From now on, you are going to play cricket." And from then on he has played cricket. The major shift came when, at 15, he carried kitbags in crowded local trains, living away from his parents and a luxurious life in Punjab. At 18 he was shredding a strong Australian attack, in only his second ODI, in the Champions Trophy in 2000.
Soon Yuvraj would become India's middle-order lynchpin, forming fruitful partnerships first with Rahul Dravid and then with MS Dhoni. Both batsmen, superb ODI operators in their own right, credited their success to Yuvraj's ability to score at will. Testament to Yuvraj's importance is that when he was dropped from the ODI side in 2010, it was the first such occurrence since he cemented his place in the Indian team. While his ODI career is full of highlight reels, perhaps the biggest impact was his contribution to India's World Twenty20 triumph in 2007, where he famously hit a Stuart Broad over for six sixes.
However, his limitations have manifested themselves in Tests, where he has struggled both against the seaming and swinging ball, and quality spin. Apart from three shining innings - a sparkling century on a Lahore greentop, another from 61 for 4 against Pakistan, and an unbeaten 85 in a successful chase of 387 in Chennai - his Test career doesn't have much to write home about.
Fast Facts
* Yuvraj Singh smashed Stuart Broad for 6 sixes in an over to become the second player after Herschelle Gibbs to achieve the feat. He did so against England in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.
* In the same match, he registered the fastest half-century in international cricket off just 12 balls.
* In T20Is, he became the first batsman to make three fifties in 20 or less balls.
* Yuvraj became the 10th most successful ODI batting all-rounder with more than 7000 runs and 80 plus wickets.
* In ODIs, he stands 4th in the all-time list of maximum century scorers for India.
* He assisted India to the highest ODI run-chase at that time - 325 runs against England in the 2002 NatWest Trophy final.
