Cricketer-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar has taken a sharp dip at the Indian cricket team’s current batters. The veteran, one of the most respected players in international cricket, said no one from the current lot has contacted him for any tips or suggestions, despite him being always available to offer guidance whenever needed. The 74-year-old also revealed that this was not the case in the past as stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman used to regularly come up to him for tips. Gavaskar said no Indian batter from current lot has ever contacted him for guidance despite having flaws, technical glitches in batting technique.
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“If the batters are making the same mistakes over and over again, you need to ask what has happened with your technique. How have you tried to improve the batter? Have you tried to tell him to maybe take a different guard? Don’t take a leg-stump guard; take a middle and off-stump guard,” Gavaskar was quoted in The Indian Express.
The 74-year-old recalled how he once called Virender Sehwag during his playing days, to offer him some valuable advice when he was struggling to score runs.
“I remember once calling Virender Sehwag out of the blue. He had not been scoring too many runs. I told him, ‘Viru, just try the off-stump guard’. So he asked, ‘Why, Sunny bhai?’ So I told him, ‘Look, you aren’t known for great footwork. What is happening is that sometimes when you are getting out, you are reaching out for the delivery, and it makes things difficult for you. So, maybe if you take the off- stump guard, you’ll know straight away that the ball is outside the off-stump’. That is where the coach can come in with his input.”
Gavaskar asserted that he has no problem approaching the players directly to help them improve their batting.
“No, no one has come. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, and VVS Laxman regularly came to me. And they would approach me with a specific problem, and you could tell them something that you had observed. I don’t have an ego about this; I could go and talk to them, but since there are two coaches-Rahul Dravid and Vikram Rathour-sometimes you hold back since you don’t want to confuse them with too much information,” the 74-year-old added.
