Yuvraj Singh has opened up on his time with the IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab saying he didn’t have a good experience of playing for them and wanted to leave them.
Yuvraj, fresh from his exploits at the 2007 ICC World T20 in South Africa, was one of the five cricketers to be given the status of ‘icon players’ for the inaugural season of IPL. After a superb first season where he led KXIP to the semi-finals as captain, he left the franchise in 2011 for the newly introduced Pune Warriors India.
“One place I wanted to run away was KXIP,” Yuvraj said on YouTube channel Sportscreen. “Every time I wanted a player, they did not give me. It was amazing when I left they had bought the same players. I was just like captain for the sake of it. I loved playing for Punjab but wanted to get away from that franchise.”
Yuvraj went on to play for PWI, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad and finally Mumbai Indians. He won IPL titles with SRH and MI before announcing his international retirement in 2018.
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The two-time world cup winner rued the fact he wasn’t given a lengthy run for a single franchise. “I never got the opportunity to play for one franchise for like 3-4 years. So guys like Virat (Kohli), (MS) Dhoni, Rohit (Sharma) they have played for one franchise for so many years. You have a base. I could not really settle,” he said.
Yuvraj also touched upon the disappointment of losing the 2016 ICC World T20 final to Sri Lanka where he struggled to score 11 off 21 deliveries.
“I take full responsibility for that final loss. I couldn’t hit the ball. But then the Lankans bowled very well,” he recalled.
“Even the other batsmen struggled but fans and media made me the villain. There were stones thrown on my house in Chandigarh. When I came home, I saw my India cap and the bat I hit 6 sixes with and realised my time is done,” he added.
