In his playing days, he was called the prince for a reason. Brian Lara might have been the Prince of Trinidad, but India was utterly delighted to have its own prince, or Yuvraj of cricket- the Prince of Punjab, aka Yuvraj Singh. A dashing, elegant batsman with a high-backlift, scoring 8,000 international runs is no jokes in any form of cricket. That Yuvraj Singh did that with sincerity and with absolute commitment to his nation, whilst he battled a life-threatening ailment, gives ample evidence of the fact that there was once this cricketer who was both a fine accumulator of runs as well as a brave soldier on the pitch.
What we miss today about the retired Yuvraj Singh, is the sheer athleticism, the legacy of which has been carried forward by the likes of India’s all-format captain Virat Kohli himself.
But what we shall continue to miss, and for times to come, are feats like the all-round performance in the 2011 World Cup that drove a country wild, pushing us to the edge of our seat, Yuvraj Singh being at his clinical best.
That being said, having played a decent lot of cricket with Virat Kohli himself, vastly regarded as the finest batsman in all forms of the game, the brilliant left-hander had some interesting observations to make about the man who has grown into blossomed into being one of the best bats around.
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There was some effusive praise showered by a caring and compassionate cricketer, no less a great batsman than captain Kohli himself.
That being said, what did Yuvraj Singh have to say about Virat Kohli:
“Virat showed some great promise when he came on board. The moment he got the opportunities, he grabbed them. That’s how he took a spot in the World Cup (Indian squad) because he was very young at that time. And it was between him and Rohit. At that time, Virat was scoring runs. That’s the reason, Virat got the spot. And compared to now, there is a complete change in him.
I have seen him grow and train in front of me. He was probably the hardest worker, very disciplined with his training. When he was scoring runs, you could see that he is somebody who wants to be the best player in the world. He had that kind of an attitude. He has got that swag.”
Furthermore, the dashing former left handed batsman of India said a thing about Kohli that would actually resonate with many Indian cricket fans around-
“He was scoring a lot of runs and then became the captain. Sometimes you get bogged down, but when he became captain, his consistency became even better. At almost 30, he has achieved a lot of things.”
That being said, the one thing that must be noted is that in the current form of international cricket, Virat Kohli is considered among the best bats, an elite clique that includes- Kane Williamson, Joe Root, and Steve Smith. But that said, at the same, it must be question, can batsmen like Faf du Plessis and Shai Hope, two batsmen whose records in the last four years, especially in white-ball cricket, are no less than these starry names not be considered as ‘fab’ batsmen?