Yuvraj Singh: entertainer, six-hitter, pie chucker extraordinaire
From Nairobi to Lord's, Durban to Rajkot, and all points in between
Yuvraj Singh: good enough to provoke blasphemy • BCCI
India were reeling from the sting of the match-fixing scandal when the 2000 ICC Knockout got underway in Nairobi. With two of their experienced middle-order batsmen serving bans, they were forced to turn to youth. Into the side came Singh, only 18, and a star of India's Under-19 World Cup triumph earlier that year. Batting for the first time in international cricket, he immediately showed he belonged, scoring 84 off 80 balls against an Australia attack that included Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie.
Even as he piled up an impressive highlights reel, Singh could be maddeningly inconsistent in his early years. From the start of 2005 to the end of 2007, however, he was easily one of the world's top ODI batsmen, scoring 2975 runs at an average of 46.48, with six hundreds.
India are now a top-class fielding side, but it wasn't always so. Singh played his part in the transformation, and in the early part of his career he was a livewire at backward point, capable of turning short, wide hit-me balls into wicket takers with his feats of athleticism. Two of his most memorable catches helped turn around the Champions Trophy semi-final of 2002: a leaping, two-handed grab at full stretch to send back Graeme Smith, and a sensational swoop at short fine leg off a top-edged sweep from Jonty Rhodes. Oh, and he had a fantastic arm too.
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo