Former Indian hard-hitting opener Virender Sehwag believes that Indian youngsters should take the initiative to talk to the legendary and senior players if things were not going their way in cricket stating that Sunil Gavaskar won’t make an effort to talk to young Sehwag or Chopra as it should be another way around.
While discussing the Prithvi Shaw dip in form in the last few seasons of the Indian Premier League, as the youngster was dropped from the Delhi Capitals team following his string of poor performances in the first six games of IPL 2023.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Virender Sehwag revealed that he did a commercial shoot alongside young Indian openers Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, where none of them talked about the game and reckons that if the youngsters need advice from the former cricketers they need to approach the Indian legends and recalled the memories of his initial days where he wanted to take few inputs from legendary Sunil Gavaskar during his playing days.
“He (Prithvi Shaw) did an ad shoot with me. Shubman Gill was also there. None of them talked about cricket for once. We were there for 6 hours. If you want to talk to someone then you have to approach them. When I was new to the team, I wanted to talk to Sunny Bhai (Gavaskar), So I said to John Wright that ‘I’m still a new player, I don’t know whether Sunny Bhai will meet me or not’, but you should organize that meeting.
So Wright organized a dinner in 2003-04 for me and I also said that my (opening) partner Aakash Chopra will also come so that we can talk about batting. So he came and had dinner with us. So, you have to make that effort. Sunil Gavaskar won’t make an effort to talk to Sehwag or Chopra. You have to request him,” Virender Sehwag told Cricbuzz.
In the last couple of seasons, Prithvi Shaw could replicate his good performance as before as he lost all his form in the cash-rich league. The young Indian opener has played only six games for his side but could not make an impact with the bat in IPL 2023 and came back in the game against Punjab Kings to score his first half-century in IPL 2023.
If You Are Not Fit Mentally, Then Nothing Can Be Done – Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag believes that mental health is very important to perform at the highest level and said that if the player cannot turn up mentally, then it would be difficult for him to make an impact in the matches.
” In cricket, no matter how much talented you are. If you are not mentally up if you are not fit mentally or don’t tune your mind. Then nothing can be done,” Virender Sehwag added.
Many youngsters have produced some match-winning performances in this edition of the Indian Premier League and few players could not do justice to their talent as their crumbled under pressure in the crunch moments of the game.