Yuvraj Singh reveals how MS Dhoni provided clarity on his retirement from international cricket

New Delhi. Yuvraj Singh, the hero of India's 2011 World Cup victory, has made new revelations regarding his retirement and cricket management. In an interview, he detailed the strategies used to exclude him from the team and how Mahendra Singh Dhoni eventually showed him the reality.

According to Yuvraj, towards the end of his career, neither captain Virat Kohli, coach Ravi Shastri, nor the National Cricket Academy (NCA) provided him with clear information. At the age of 36-37, Yuvraj felt confused as he was constantly in and out of the team.

He complained that despite playing for the country for a long time, he expected some respect and clarity from the management, but no one communicated with him directly. In such a situation, after receiving no answers from anywhere, he called his former captain and friend, Dhoni.

Dhoni told Yuvraj the truth that the selectors were now focusing on new players and he was no longer part of their future plans. It was due to this clarity from Dhoni that Yuvraj decided to retire from all formats of international cricket on 10 June 2019.

He leveled serious allegations against the management, claiming he was pressured to retire. They tried to exclude him from the game by using the excuse of failing the fitness test, the Yo-Yo test. However, Yuvraj gave a firm response, stating that while the decision to keep him in the team or not was up to the management, the decision to retire would be entirely his own.

Not only this, he revealed that he kept his distance from the commentary field even after retirement because some individuals made personal remarks about him. He clarified that while criticism of the game is acceptable, he cannot work alongside those who make personal attacks.

Yuvraj, who started his career in 2000, scored over 11,000 runs in a glorious 19-year journey, playing 304 ODIs, 58 T20s, and 40 Tests. His record of hitting six sixes in a single over against England in the 2007 T20 World Cup and scoring a half-century in just 12 balls is still written in golden letters in the history of Indian cricket.

Having become the 'Player of the Tournament' in the 2011 World Cup with 362 runs and 15 wickets, he struggled to regain his form after returning to the field following his battle with cancer. After the 2011 World Cup, he was only able to score one century.