“Never entertained him after that” - Former India batter makes shocking claim of Virat Kohli’s role in Yuvraj Singh’s retirement

Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa claimed Virat Kohli had a massive role in Yuvraj Singh's exclusion from the side in his final years and his eventual retirement. Yuvraj played a pivotal role in India winning the 2007 and 2011 T20 and ODI World Cups, including being named the Player of the Tournament in the latter.

However, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor stage-1 in his left lung and underwent chemotherapy following the 2011 ODI World Cup. While he returned to full-time action at the end of 2012, Yuvraj lost some of his batting aura that put him among the most feared batters in world cricket.

After Kohli became India's full-time white-ball captain in 2017, Yuvraj played only a handful of games, with the West Indian ODI series in June being his final hurrah in international cricket.

Talking on the Lallantop YouTube channel, Uthappa opened up on Kohli's lack of consideration for Yuvraj's fitness issues and his ultimate retirement [Via Hindustan Times].

"When Yuvi requested for that two-point deduction [fitness test], he didn’t get it. Then he did the test because he was outside the team and they weren’t taking him in. He passed the fitness test, came inside the team, had a lean tournament, took him out totally. Never entertained him after that. Whoever was in the leadership group, didn’t entertain him. That time Virat was the leader and it went according to him due to his strong personality, and that time it was according to him," he said.

Uthappa added:

"The man beat cancer, and he is trying to come back into the international side. He is the man who won us a World Cup, won us two World Cups for that matter, along with the other players, but played an integral role in helping us win. Then for such a player, when you become captain, you say his lung capacity has diminished and you have been with him when you have seen him struggle."

Having been excluded from the Indian side since the middle of 2017, Yuvraj finally announced his international retirement in 2019. He finished with almost 12,000 runs and 17 centuries in 402 outings across formats, while also picking up 148 wickets.

"He was very ‘my way or the highway’ kind of a captain" - Robin Uthappa

Kohli was arguably India's best-ever Test captain [Credit: Getty]

Robin Uthappa felt Virat Kohli's captaincy style wasn't as inclusive as others and focussed only on results over treating individuals in the right manner.

Despite not winning an ICC tournament as captain, Kohli boasted an excellent record as skipper with 135 wins in 213 games at a winning percentage of 63.38.

"I haven’t played under Virat as a captain very much. But Virat as a captain, he was very ‘my way or the highway’ kind of a captain. It's not like these guys aren’t also like that, but how to treat your team, how you treat your personnel, because it is not just about results."

Kohli also has extensive experience captaining his IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). However, the results were a mixed bag with the side winning 66 and losing 70 in 143 games under him.