September 9, 2020: Former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh is ready to come out of retirement and play for Punjab in the domestic circuit. Yuvraj had retired from all forms of cricket in June last year and has since played in a couple of T20 leagues outside India. However, the hero of India's 2011 World Cup-winning campaign is willing to return to domestic cricket to help Punjab win trophies and guide the next generation of stars.

Yuvraj confirmed that he has written a letter to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah seeking permission to come out of retirement and play domestic cricket again. If allowed, Yuvraj will be barred from taking part in any overseas league. Yuvraj is likely to play for Punjab a couple of seasons and admitted that he will start with only T20s but might change his mind later.

Yuvraj worked with Punjab's IPL-bound players Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh at the PCA Stadium in Mohali during the lockdown to prepare them for the upcoming season which gets underway in UAE from September 19. It was while training the youngsters that Yuvraj got a chance to bat in the nets with them and was 'pleasantly surprised' by how well he was hitting the ball.

He was approached by Puneet Bali, the secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association after one of the training sessions to consider coming out of retirement and playing for Punjab. Yuvraj revealed it was not an easy decision for him to make but he decided to take up the offer to help Punjab win trophies in the domestic circuit.

Yuvraj played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is before drawing curtains on his professional career last year. He has 1900, 8701 and 1177 runs to his name in the three formats respectively.