Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh
will make his 300th ODI appearance for India when he would come out to
play against Bangladesh on Thursday in the second semi-final of the ICC
Champions Trophy 2017. The left-hander is in decent touch in the ongoing
Champions Trophy tournament as he has scored 53, 7 and 23* so far in
his three outings with the bat.
Yuvraj began his international career for India way back in 2000 in
Champions Trophy against Kenya but he didn’t get a chance to showcase
his talent with the bat in that match. The aggressive left-hander didn’t
waste much time to prove his worth and smashed 84 in the very next
match against a formidable Australia bowling line-up. India ended the
campaign as runners-up after losing to New Zealand in the final.
One of the most crucial performances from the left-hander came in
World Cup 2011 when he anchored the hosts India to the title. Yuvraj was
chosen the man of the tournament in that edition of World Cup. India
defeated Sri Lanka in the final at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai by 6
wickets to lift the trophy.
While Yuvraj had played a vital role in India’s World Cup 2011 win,
he had been a part of Champions Trophy final twice (2000 and 2002). In
299 matches that Yuvraj has played so far, he has scored over 8000 runs
including 14 tons and 52 half-centuries with a best individual score of
150 that he scored against England in a bilateral series at home earlier
this year. India are presently defending the Champions Trophy that they
won in 2013 after defeating England in final by 5 runs.
Present Indian skipper Virat Kohli in a pre-match press conference congratulated Yuvraj for achieving the feat.
“His contribution to Indian cricket has been outstanding. He has been
a total match winner for India and has won us so many big tournaments
and big series. This is just a kind of testimony to the kind of talent
he posses, he obviously needs to have all things in place to be able to
play 300 games for India. I congratulate him and I wish him all the very
best and hopefully, he can play a lot more for us and get in that
match-winning performances all over again. I hope tomorrow is a special
one for him,” Virat said.
