Yuvraj Singh in high demand: why cricketers knock on his door in their hour of need?

How Yuvraj Singh has become the most sought-after mentor in India. He retired long ago, but he is still contributing, and that makes him a heck of a contributor to Indian cricket.

Lucknow Supergiants captain Rishabh Pant last week was reported to have spent time with Yuvi in Mumbai, where he discussed multiple aspects of his game as he sought help from the Man of the Tournament in the 2011 World Cup, which India won at home.

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And wicketkeeper batsman Pant needs help; he has gone down the pecking order. In ODIs, it’s KL Rahul who has the upper hand over him; in T20Is, it’s now Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson. All he is left now is Test cricket, and if he continues to disappoint as he has in the last few series, he can soon find himself completely out of favour. His IPL career is not going great either. At this troubled hour, there is no better mentor than Yuvraj, whose power-hitting was way ahead of the time he played his cricket in.

Yuvraj’s reputation as a mentor has really grown in the last few years. It all started at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, when he invited a few Punjab players to his house and decided to groom their game, at no cost. Two players from that group, Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma, have since gone from strength to strength.

Shubman is at present captain of the Test and ODI teams, while Abhishek is the number one batsman in the T20I format and has played a couple of crucial innings in the recently concluded T20 World Cup that India won for the third time. Prabhsimran Singh was also part of that group, and he too has since become a force to reckon with in the Indian Premier League for the Punjab Kings. Priyansh Arya, another PBKS player, has also benefited from Yuvraj.

So, what makes Yuvraj such a fantastic guru? First and foremost, Yuvraj knows the nuances of batsmanship like the back of his hand. Abhishek’s ability to hit the balls far away from him, far away from his off-stump, is the result of his training with Yuvi.

There are many videos on social media where Yuvi asks him to stay wherever he is, keep his balance and not lose his shape, and just reach for the ball and strike it powerfully on the offside. Ajay Jadeja once called Yuvi the most talented Indian cricketer he had ever seen.

Then, he is an easy-going person. Rest assured, there will be a lot of jokes to laugh at when he is around. Training with him can be a lot of fun. That he is accessible makes him truly special.

In his day, Yuvraj was one of the best power-hitters in world cricket. And he didn’t just do it in the Indian Premier League, he did it in India colours. His six sixes off Stuart Broad in an over in the 2007 T20 World Cup are still vivid in our memories. His 30-ball 70 against Australia in the semifinal is undoubtedly one of the greatest knocks in the shortest format of the game. He was the most important player in India’s historic triumph in that edition, no two ways about it.

Today, Yuvraj loves to play the big brother's role. And that’s another reason why he is so successful in his new vocation. If Pant turns out to be far more successful in the coming months than he has been in the past, it should be owed to his hard work; however, the glory will be entirely Yuvi’s.

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