Zaheer Khan reminisces his best moments with the Indian team alongside Yuvraj Singh
Zaheer Khan looked back on his playing career alongside Yuvraj Singh as he went back to the day when the duo made their debut at the Champions Trophy tournament in Nairobi in 2002. Singh announced his retirement from international cricket after playing for India in 402 matches across all formats.
The Indian cricket team will probably never see an all-rounder like Yuvraj Singh ever again. A destructive presence in the middle order and a handy left-arm spinner, Singh was a player who had it all not to forget with his brilliant heroics in the field. The Punjab-born cricketer notched up 8701 runs in the ODI format that included 14 centuries as well.
Former India pacer Zaheer Khan, who made his debut for India alongside Yuvraj in the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy in Nairobi, spoke about how the time was right for the Mumbai Indians player to hang up his boots from international cricket.
"It’s an emotional day in anyone’s career. Through my experience, when I decided its time and I have to move on, it just kind of comes to and you feel that you are free from all burdens and all the sacrifices you’ve done. This is time to celebrate Yuvi’s career, his achievements and wish him all the best in his second innings," Khan said in on a talk show for Cricbuzz.
Khan, who has a tally of 282 wickets from 200 ODIs, also spoke about how he knew Yuvraj had the ability to play the big knocks towards the end of the innings. The veteran pacer who serves as Mumbai Indians’ director of cricket heaped praise Singh’s uniqueness and talent with the bat in big tournaments.
"Once Yuvraj played the knock against Australia, we all knew we are going to see something special because he had great ability. He and I used to always fight about how he wanted to bat higher up the batting order.
"I always told him that the kind of impact he had on the game, the kind of things you can do batting at number five in white-ball cricket, which is the toughest position to bat at, he had the ability, power to bat at number five. The uniqueness of Yuvraj was that whenever he used to get on a roll he finished the tournament as Man of the series. It’s something that he did consistently," Khan said.