Yuvraj Singh is among the most prominent names of Indian cricket. He has done a lot for the Indian team. His performance in ODIs speaks volume of his achievement. However, Yuvraj’s IPL career wasn’t as fruitful as his ODI and T20I career. He couldn’t replicate the same class batting in franchise cricket.
Yuvraj was one of the most desired players amongst the franchises when IPL started in 2008, owing to his wonderful performance in T20I World Cup in 2007, which the Indian team won. He was picked by his state franchise Kings XI Punjab and the team made it to semi-final under his leadership.
After a good performance in the inaugural edition of IPL, Kings XI Punjab couldn’t repeat the same in the coming year and things started going haywire for the franchise. Eventually, Yuvraj was released from the team.
The management didn’t like me there: Yuvraj Singh
In a tournament as big as IPL, the role of management becomes so crucial. It is the management’s responsibility to back players even when they are unable to deliver on certain occasions. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are prime examples of it. Their management always backed them and that’s one of the reasons why they have been the most successful teams in the history of IPL.
Both MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma got the backing of their management, while this was not the case for Yuvraj Singh when he was made the captain of Kings XI Punjab. He got no support from the management which ultimately led to Yuvraj’s exit from the team.
Yuvraj Singh said, “I wanted to run away from Kings XI Punjab. The management didn’t like me there. They did nothing I asked them to do and when I left, they bought all the players I had been asking them to. I love Punjab but I did not like the running of the franchise.”
There were speculations that Yuvraj Singh would take the IPL by storm considering his power-hitting ability, but it turned out to be a lackluster career for Yuvraj. He finished his career with mediocre numbers. Yuvraj has 2750 runs in 132 games at an average of 24. IPL was indeed one of the biggest underachievement of Yuvraj’s career.
