It has been almost seven years since the retirement of Yuvraj Singh from international cricket. However, the 2011 World Cup-winner has largely stayed away from the commentary box. Usually, retired cricketers do take up coaching; however, Yuvraj has shown greater interest in shaping the careers of youngsters, such as Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill. Till now, it was believed that the 44-year-old wasn’t interested in commentary and his focus was on helping Indian cricket and shaping more and more cricketers. However, the truth is very different.
At last, the batter, who hit 6 sixes in an over off the bowling of Stuart Broad in the inaugural T20 World Cup, revealed that it is a conscious decision by him to stay away from the commentary box as he doesn’t want to mingle with those who once passed personal remarks about him.
Yuvraj didn’t name anyone categorically, but he did say it point-blank that he cannot fake his emotions, hence it will always be better for him not to engage with those who once passed nasty remarks about him.
“Now that I have retired, let me speak about the issue. The real issue is that those people who made remarks about me, not on cricket, but rather personal statements. I understand what you mean when you talk about the game. When you get personal, you always remember that,” Yuvraj told Sports Tak.
“I don’t want to sit with the people who passed personal remarks about me. That’s the main reason I don’t want to do commentary. Commentary is a great place to speak about the game and how it has evolved. That is the main reason I don’t want to do commentary,” he added.
How Yuvraj shaped Sanju Samson
Before the T20 World Cup 2026, Yuvraj also put in the hard yards, working alongside Sanju Samson, the eventual Player of the Tournament. The former Indian middle-order batter also spent some time with Rishabh Pant, the Lucknow Super Giants captain, ahead of the IPL 2026 season.
Speaking about Samson, Yuvraj revealed that the right-handed batter reached out to him when he lost his place in the playing XI.
“Sanju had reached that stage where he felt he was not finding a place in the XI. The conversation I had with him happened in 2024 when India won that World Cup in Barbados. In that World Cup, Sanju was not playing. I had been watching his batting for 2-3 IPL seasons. I told him we would speak whenever he had time,” said Yuvraj.
“So my issue with Sanju was, you have to improve your footwork. If you don’t improve your footwork, you will consistently land in trouble. Scoring runs or not is different, but you have to improve your footwork. I gave him some ideas on how to improve it,” he added.
