Former team India all-rounder and hero of 2011 World Cup, Yuvraj Singh in the wee hours of Tuesday dropped a shell for his fans and said he will hopefully be back on the pitch in February next year.
In a late night Instagram post that Yuvraj Singh shared around 2:30 am on Tuesday, Yuvraj said he will come back on the pitch on public demand.
He shared a video with the post of his last international century that came against England at home where both Yuvraj and Dhoni scored centuries to help India recover from early blows.
"God decides your destiny!! On public demand il be back on the pitch hopefully in February! Ain't nothing like this feeling! Thank you for your love and wishes mean a lot to me! Keep supporting. Its our team and a true fan will show his or her support in tough times. #jaihind" Yuvraj wrote in the post.
Although it is not clear if Yuvraj will come out of retirement and play cricket or will be seen in any different role 'on the pitch', the left-handers fans took the moment to express their joy assuming they will see the Yuvraj playing for India again.
Yuvraj's post comes at a time when Indian fans have expressed anguish and disappointment over the team's recent performances in the ongoing T20 WC where it is on the verge of being knocked out from the super 12 stage.
Fans have repeatedly been calling out on players like MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and others to come out of retirement and play for the team again.
Yuvraj's post look set to create buzz in the cricketing circle in days to come as fans will be eager to hear more on the development and hints thrown by the cricketer.
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New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
