Yuvraj Singh during India's practice session at the Edgbaston on Wednesday. Image Source: XtraTime[/caption]Birmingham: Legendary Indian left hand batsman Yuvraj Singh will play his career’s 300th ODI match when India will lock horns with Bangladesh in the ICC Champions Trophy tomorrow. Yuvraj is only the fifth Indian player to achieve this milestone after Mohammed Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. According to the fiery middle order batsman playing the 300th match is a huge honour for him, but at one stage he thought whether he could play another game for India or not.
"I don't know about [being] the role model, but it's a big achievement for me to finish 300 games in my career," Yuvraj Singh said. "It is huge honour. When I started playing for India I was happy just playing one game for India. That would have been a big achievement for me, but it's come a long way. There have been ups and downs, and I am proud of myself. I have come through and still managed to get to 300. At one stage I was thinking if I was going to play another game," said Yuvraj.
On being asked whether he would try to do anything special while playing his 300th game, the veteran left-hander replied,”I won’t try to do anything special tomorrow. The team’s purpose is more important than my personal achievement. My entire focus will be on tomorrow’s semifinal against Bangladesh. They are playing really well in the tournament. Just want to win the match tomorrow and not focusing on my 300th ODI.”
After playing for seventeen long years for India, Yuvraj has admitted that the game has transformed a lot.” There has been a bit of transformation which has happened in cricket. Whatever I have learned from our seniors I have passed it to my juniors. And in terms of games, the players fitness has evolved a lot. The game has become faster paced. The guys who are coming into the team are much more fitter. They are learning very quickly,” added Yuvraj.
Yuvraj fought with cancer and made a dramatic comeback in the Indian Cricket team. He has given some mantras to the juniors as well.
“One should never give up. You have to fight with the obstacles which are coming to your life. You have to keep working on the same way whether you are having good times or bad times. The juniors have to be consistent and focused on their goal.”
Yuvraj has made so many comebacks in the Indian side during his 17 years long career. On being asked about the secret behind so many comebacks Yuvraj replied,"To play for India is not that difficult, but to sustain it is tough. You need to have the determination to never give up, and believe in yourself. Self-belief is very important because when things are not going well for you, other people have their own opinion. So at that time it's very important to believe in yourself, that you've done it in the past, and now is the time you can do it again."
Nobody thought Yuvraj would make a dramatic come back to cricket after surviving from cancer. But he made that and set an example to everyone."I did like to be portrayed as a fighter. A lot of people can actually get inspired not to give up in their life. Cancer is something which I always talk [about]. A lot of people think there's stigma with cancer. So I can motivate a lot of people to come out of it, and to come back to where they belong," concluded Yuvraj.
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