Former India fielding coach R Sridhar shares riveting incident involving Shubman Gill in his book

Shubman Gill, the young batting sensation of Indian cricket has shown some exceptional performances in with his bat in recent times. With a century each against Bangladesh in Tests, Sri Lanka in ODIs and a double century against New Zealand in the first ODI in Hyderabad, the 23 years old has almost cemented his place in the team and is being considered as one of the key players for India in future.

Meanwhile, R. Sridhar, who was team India’s fielding coach from 2014 to 2021, recalled an incident involving Shubman in his recently launched book named ‘Coaching Beyond: My days with the Indian Cricket team’ when the India batter was slightly reluctant to put in the hard yards while fielding during the Test series against England in 2021 at home. The excerpt from Sridhar's book also talks about how the former fielding coach motivated the young batter.

In his book, Sridhar also mentions how the current generation of players see themselves as a ‘finished product’ as fielders when they come into the Indian team and are a bit more reluctant to put in the hard work as compared to their cricketing idols.

He also described how he made KL Rahul field at silly point and short leg when he was not keeping back then. The excerpt reads, "But the mindset is different in the guys coming in now. Some are just not very willing to put in the hard work."

“In Ahmedabad, during the last Test against England in March 2021, things came to a boil with Shubman. I contemplated having a word with Ravi about it but held my horses and took him out for lunch instead."

"I told him, ‘You are considered the next big thing. People are looking at you from a leadership perspective. As a future leader, the one thing you should bring is inspiration. You should have a presence on the field and when you do something you must do it with intent. It is not just doing it for the sake of the team. Do it for yourself.' Do it for your satisfaction, not because the captain wants you there. What you do there should be an inspiration for the whole team."

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store