Five years, nine months and 30 days ago, Yuvraj Singh hit 113 runs against West Indies in the 2011 World Cup match in Chennai. Not many would have thought that one of India’s biggest hitters of the game would go into a lull period owing to a life threating disease. Yuvraj’s determination and positivity towards life made him overcome the rollercoaster period as he came out as a tough mind who went on to inspire the nation with his ‘never say die’ attitude. From working religiously on his fitness and setting his system to come back to where he belongs, Yuvraj did it all.

‘It is tough when you go through a phase like this in your life and then strive to come back to where you belong. A person in his mid-30s needs to do an extra bit to regain his fitness,’ he quipped while talking to BCCI.TV. From Chennai to Cuttack, a time lapse video would miss out on many gems of the triumph of human spirit, as Yuvraj Singh went onto register his career-best 150 runs in ODIs.

Here are some excerpts, which would help discover those gems. Sachin Tendulkar called you a superstar in his tweet after you scored your 14th ODI ton. Your message to him? He always calls me a superstar, which is a little embarrassing in front of him, but I always take his wishes whenever I am starting my international career again. Thank you so much Mr. Tendulkar for your wishes, I think they worked really well today. On Sachin Tendulkar calling MS Dhoni a ‘rockstar’ MS and I have been batting together for a while and he played a sensational knock. We have a great understanding in between the wickets and today we discussed what was happening on the field and it turned out to be a great partnership in the middle. 5 years 9 months 30 days since the last international 100. How does it feel? It feels great! It has been a career full of ups and downs. Coming back into squad and cementing my position, being in and out of the team for a while, but happy that I worked hard and believed in myself.

You were thumping the BCCI crest with the bat handle after reaching your century. Run us through the emotions Emotions are very hard to describe as it has been a while and I was not being able to get 100 runs on the board. I worked very hard over the years, worked on my fitness, on my diet. It took me a long time to come back and show that I can still play international cricket. It was very important that I proved that to myself because there is very less self-belief outside. In your earlier interview to us, you had said you were keen on seeing the vintage partnership between you and MS Dhoni. Tell us more about it. It was a great partnership. We started slowly, knocked the ball around as we knew how we were going to approach the game. My approach was to not hit the ball in the air, but get a steady partnership. Mahi too was keen on staying at the wicket and rotate the strike. We understand our goals really well and it worked for us today This is your highest score in ODIs. How do you rate this century of yours? One of my best knocks in one-day cricket. 150 is a big score for any batsman and I’m very proud to get that. Hopefully, I can continue to do well with whatever I am left with. The DRS is slowly becoming the Dhoni Review System as he gets it right mostly. Your comments?

I think Dhoni had a better view of the ball hitting the ground. I initially knew that it had hit the ground, so we went ahead and called for the DRS.