“Teams with Indian coaches and captains are happier,” Sunil Gavaskar takes indirect dig at Ricky Ponting after DC’s flop show
He mostly talked about how teams function under Indian versus foreign leaders by pointing out that out of 15 titles, 12 have been won by teams led by Indians.
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Sunil Gavaskar, Ricky Ponting (Images via Twitter)
After the conclusion of the league matches of the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the legendary Sunil Gavaskar penned down his observations, highlighting areas that needed much improvement. He mostly talked about how teams function under Indian versus foreign leaders by pointing out that out of 15 titles, 12 have been won by teams led by Indians.
The major point Gavaskar emphasized in his columns is to have Indian coaches or skippers as this allows the youngsters or newcomers to approach the seniors easily to talk about their problems and pick their brains on how to get better. The 1983 World Cup winner claimed that teams with Indian coaches or captains are much happier than those that don’t.
“Often, the language is a barrier for a young budding Indian player who comes from the interiors and may not be conversant in English to understand. That probably explains why players like Yash Dhull, Priyam Garg, and Sarfaraz Khan, to name just three, have made little or no progress,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sporstar.
Sunil Gavaskar questions why DC management did not promote Axar Patel to the top order for batting. “Then there was the stubborn, almost defiant refusal to promote the in-form Axar Patel up the batting order,” Gavaskar said and added that DC’s not sending Patel to bat above number seven has prompted even former India head coach Ravi Shastri to question whether there was something in the contract that said Patel wouldn’t bat above No. 7 in the batting order.
Sunil Gavaskar heaps praise on Chandrakant Pandit, Gautam Gambhir, and Ashish Nehra
Gavaskar cited the example of Rinku Singh who had a whirlwind of a season and earned plaudits from many, including Gavaskar. He thinks under coach Chandrakant Pandit, Rinku made tremendous progress and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) even saw players like Venkatesh Iyer, skipper Nitish Rana, and Varun Chakravarthy return to form.
The 73-year-old also praised Lucknow Super Giants‘ (LSG) Gautam Gambhir under whose mentorship players like Ravi Bishnoi, Ayush Badoni, and Naveen Ul Haq are flowering. And the Indian duo of Ashish Nehra and Hardik Pandya, from the very start of the IPL season last year, only garnered praise, which Gavaskar thinks is due to the ease of communication and reach for the Indian players.
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