India’s mercurial batsman and 2011 World Cup player of the tournament Yuvraj Singh has been out of the Indian team for a while now.

After making a big comeback in 2017 against England, by scoring his highest ODI score of 150 and also taking part in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017; Yuvraj Singh was dropped from the team in June 2017.  Yuvraj Singh is currently attending the 18th Laureus World Sports Awards.

In an interview with PTI, Yuvraj said, “I am looking forward to a good IPL. It's a very important tournament for me as it will only set me to play cricket till 2019. I am looking to play cricket till 2019, whatever cricket I get to play and take a call after that.”

Yuvraj Singh made his debut in ICC Knockout Trophy in 2000 as an 18-year-old and was a regular in the team till 2011 World Cup. A rare germ cell cancer derailed a brilliant career and since then Yuvraj has battled with fitness and form issues, despite making numerous comebacks in the Indian team.

However, Yuvraj Singh calls not playing enough Test cricket for India his biggest regret.

"Definitely, in the first 6-7 years of my career when I was at my best I did not get a lot of opportunities because there were such great players in the (Test) team and when I got an opportunity I was diagnosed with cancer. So that regret will always be there but these things are never in my control. I am just looking forward to whatever cricket I get to play," the 36-year-old all-rounder said.

Yuvraj Singh praised Virat Kohli and Team India for their performance in South Africa.

"I think it is a pretty great performance. They showed a lot of character after losing the Test series. It was as a hard-fought Test series, could have gone either way. But it was a very convincing win in the ODI series. Kohli led from the front with some big runs," the left-handed batsman said.

Yuvraj also praised Kuldeep and Chahal for their performance in rainbow nation.

"Spinners bowled very well especially Kuldeep (Yadav) and (Yuzvendra) Chahal and got South Africa into trouble. And then they stepped on the gas and won the T20 series 2-1. Going abroad playing three series winning two definitely shows India's dominance. It's a good start to believe that you can dominate outside. If you can consistently do that in England and Australia you definitely will have the belief," he said.

Yuvraj also had a word of advice for young guns like Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, who got big bids in the recent IPL 2018 auction.

"The more they get better the more money they will earn. So they don't have to worry about money. They have to focus on how quickly they can do better and play for India," he said when asked about the Indian Under-19 cricketers.

"I think Prithvi, Shubman, Abhishek Sharma are great talents and hopefully in the next coming years we will see them play for India. I am sure the IPL will give them a great platform to learn from other international players and feel the hype of international cricket. So it's very important tournament for them and they should enjoy it," Yuvraj signed off.

(With inputs from PTI)