INDIAN HOUSEHOLD CRICKET
Yuvraj announced his retirement from all formats last year. © Getty
For the past few days, Yuvraj Singh has been sweating with his Punjab teammates at the IS Bindra Punjab Cricket Association Stadium. Yuvraj is motivated to make a comeback at the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. He spent a good 45 minutes in the nets, and when the ball hit the sweet spot of his racket it was evident that the charismatic left-handed player hadn’t lost a bit of his magical touch. Around 30 Punjab cricketers, who were divided into two groups, had taken part in a 10-day preparatory camp ahead of a T20 tournament starting December 18 in Ludhiana.
However, there is uncertainty about his comeback. Yuvraj has yet to obtain approval from the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sourav Ganguly. Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) secretary, Puneet Bali, who asked Yuvraj to get out of retirement, told TOI: “We are still waiting for BCCI’s response.”
Yuvraj had retired from international and domestic cricket, including the Indian Premier League (IPL), in June 2019 and opted for foreign leagues around the world. He played for Toronto Nationals in Global T20 Canada last August and Maratha Arabians in Abu Dhabi T10 last November.
The BCCI rule states that the active domestic cricketers are not allowed to compete in the overseas T20 leagues. Therefore, it will be interesting to see if the flamboyant batsman gets a green signal from the board or not.
Aside from Yuvraj, the Punjab selectors also added Pacer Barinder Sran to their 30-man probability list ahead of the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. The 28-year-old, who played six ODIs and two T20Is for India, previously criticized the Punjab selectors before joining Chandigarh last year.
The change didn’t go well for Sran as he only scored five wickets in so many List-A games and two wickets in four T20 games and didn’t take a wicket in the lone Ranji Trophy game he played against Arunachal Pradesh. He was later dropped by the Chandigarh selectors, stating his bad form. Now he’s returned to play for Punjab.
Sreesanth called under Kerala probabilities
Sreesanth will finally return to active cricket after his ban is completed, as the fast bowler was inducted into the 26-man group of probabilities for the Kerala Senior State Team ahead of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The T20 tournament is scheduled to start on January 10th.
Sreesanth was eligible to play as of September 13th that year, but with the start of the domestic season delayed due to the pandemic, Pacer had to wait for it to return. The 37-year-old Sreesanth and the rest of the players including Sanju Samson, Sachin Baby and Jalaj Saxena will attend a prep camp at SD College Ground in Alappuzha from December 20-30
© TNN