Yuvraj Singh has mentored several young players in recent years.
Legendary India cricketer Yuvraj Singh has mentored several young players in recent years, including Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma.
While Shubman has become India’s Test and ODI captain with his consistent performances over the last few years, Abhishek has taken the cricketing world by storm with his whirlwind exploits in the T20I format.
Recently, Yuvraj opened up about mentoring Gill and Sharma, calling the former smarter, more hardworking and with greater work ethics, but mentioned that latter was given time to reach his current level.
“When I worked with Abhishek and Shubman… Shubman was already playing for India; he was much smarter, more hardworking, with greater work ethics. Abhishek is someone we had to bring there,” said Yuvraj on the YouTube show Serving It Up with Sania, hosted by former Indian tennis player Sania Mirza.
“I think we had something like a four-year plan: ‘If you do these things in four years, then with your talent, you could play for India.’ I told him, ‘I’m not here to motivate you to play in the IPL… I mean, the IPL is great, Ranji Trophy is great… but I am here for you to play for the country.’ And I think for four years he did exactly what I told him, and in exactly four years and three months, he played for India,” he added.
When Yuvraj feels proud whenever Abhishek and Shubman do well, he gave credit of their success to their fathers.
“Definitely, for both Abhishek and Shubman, every time they perform, I feel proud. The major success of their stories has been their fathers. I have just been someone who could guide them to a place where I know what the challenges are. Any guy I work with, whether it’s Abhishek or Shubman or the next ones I’m working with, every time they perform at the domestic level or any level, I feel proud,” Yuvraj stated.
Yuvraj revealed he didn’t have a mentor early in his international career, which prompted him to help young talents today.
“I didn’t have a mentor, someone who had tasted international cricket, to understand what it takes to play at that level. I had good seniors around me, but by the time my relationship with Sachin (Tendulkar) improved, it took almost four or five years to get to know him, understand what he was trying to explain about the game, and learn from him.”
“So, what I took from that is that when younger guys come from, say, Ranji Trophy to the international level, they can get stuck in between. I thought I could really contribute mentally to help make that transition,” Yuvraj remarked.