Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh is the fifth Indian batsman to play 300 One-Day-Internationals. Yuvraj Singh made his 300th appearance in Indian jersey when he took the field in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 semi-final match against Bangladesh yesterday.
However, he didn’t get a chance to bat in the match as the top three Indian batsmen Dhawan, Rohit and Virat anchored the Men in Blue to the finals of the tournament defeating Bangladesh by 9 wickets. But Yuvraj has been in decent touch throughout the tournament when a chance has come to him.
Yuvraj Singh has amassed 8622 runs at an average of 36.84 with 14 hundreds and 52 half-centuries in the 299 ODIs he played before taking the field for the ICC Champions Trophy semi-final vs. Bangladesh.
Prior to the start of the match, Indian team held a presentation where Yuvraj was given a memento by former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly. Yuvraj, the aggressive Indian batsman revealed that it was Ganguly under whom his career flourished. “My favorite captain was Sourav Ganguly. I learned a lot from him and my career flourished under him the most. He infused the feeling in us that we could win a series abroad,” Yuvraj said.
“It is a big achievement for me. I am not going to do anything special. I think the team is much more important than my 300th game. We are focusing on our semi-final. I think Bangladesh have been doing really well in the tournament. We want to contribute towards our plans. We have to win this match at any cost. I am not focusing on my 300th game.
“I don’t know about [being] the role model, but it’s a big achievement for me to finish 300 games in my career. It is a huge honor. When I started playing for India I was happy just playing one game for India. That would have been a big achievement for me, but it’s come a long way. There have been ups and downs, and I am proud of myself. I have come through and still managed to get to 300. At one stage I was thinking if I was going to play another game,” Yuvraj added.
There was a dip in form, fitness concerns and at one point, his fans feared they had seen the last of Yuvraj on the field, especially with the emergence of India’s new-age batsmen. But the stylish southpaw defied all odds and ensured he was back in contention for a place in India’s limited-overs teams when he scored tons of runs in the domestic circuit.
Watch The Video Here:
🙌 A special presentation for @YUVSTRONG12 ahead of his 300th ODI for 🇮🇳#BANvIND #CT17 pic.twitter.com/n6Noy5elp9
— ICC (@ICC) June 15, 2017
Yuvraj began his ODI career in 2000 during the ICC Knockout tournament against Kenya but didn’t get a chance to show his skills with the bat in that particular match. But the left-hander did capitalize later as he smashed 84 against Australia in the very first innings where he got a chance to serve the team with his willow.