Punjab Cricket Secretary Asks Yuvraj Singh To Come Out Of Retirement, Become Player-Cum-Mentor

The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) secretary has requested former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh to come out of retirement and play for the state again in the upcoming domestic season.

PCA Secretary Puneet Bali on Friday said he has requested Singh to become a player-cum-mentor of the state team, but the former batsman is yet to respond.

"We requested Yuvraj five, six days ago and we are awaiting his response. It will be really good for Punjab cricket if he can play and mentor them at the same time," Bali told PTI.

Singh, who retired from professional cricket in June 2019, was already mentoring some players, including Shubman Gill. Last month, he mentored Gill, Anmolpreet Singh, Abhishek Sharma and Harpreet Brar, all who are set to playing in the upcoming Indian Premier League(IPL).

In recent years, Punjab has lost several key players to other states. Bali said that the state team can benefit from Singh's experience and mentoring.

"These boys were all undergoing sessions with our physios and trainers to prepare [for the season]. Yuvraj initiated sessions with these boys while he was in Chandigarh. Over the last couple of seasons, we've lost players to other states, many of our players to Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh and Himachal. So we felt a player of Yuvraj's experience and calibre could lend a lot of value and inspire the youngsters," Bali told ESPNcricinfo.

"The request I made was for him to consider playing all formats. But if he comes back to and says, he's available only for limited-overs cricket, for some reason, that will be fine too. I'm looking forward to hearing from him soon. But as such, he's been working hard with the boys," he added.

In his career, 38-year-old Singh has played 40 Tests in which he scored 1,900 runs at an average of 33. Singh, who made his international debut in an ODI against Kenya in 2000 also played 304 ODIs in which he scored 8,701 runs at an average of 36.5.