How Sachin Tendulkar helped Sanju Samson and many others: Dial S for solution | cricket news
As he walked forward to collect the Player of the Tournament award after India won the T20 World Cup on Sunday, an emotional Sanju Samson recalled how he felt heartbroken after the poor form, with his dreams shattered. Luckily for Samson, help was just a call away.Samson became the latest in a long line of Indian batsmen to seek help from the God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar. He was not disappointed like others.Go beyond limits with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!“When I was sitting out in Australia (during the T20 in October)… I was not playing any game, so I thought about what mentality is required,” Samson said. “I approached ‘Sir’ and had a long chat with him.”Samson spoke heartily about the importance of Sachin’s guidance – “that clarity, preparation for the game, awareness and understanding of the game”. “Even the night before the final, sir had called me to know how I was feeling,” he revealed.
This is why Sunil Gavaskar, who himself was Tendulkar’s mentor at one time, has called Sachin the ‘University of Batting’. Former India head coach and former South Africa opening batsman Gary Kirsten also referred to Tendulkar in similar terms.Despite being away from international cricket for over a decade, Tendulkar still watches the game keenly and makes keen comments about the batsman’s technique. The Master does not broadcast these comments publicly, but if the player contacts him, he is always ready to help.‘Tendulkar brings honesty and keeps things simple’Cast your mind back to India’s 2011 World Cup, when Yuvraj Singh suffered a very poor time with the bat a year before the event. Questions are swirling about whether he should even be included in the team. During the camp, when the left-handed batsman was struggling with a decline in both form and fitness, Tendulkar told him, “You will matter when it matters most.” Yuvraj became the player of the tournament.In 2014, Virat Kohli said he was in a psychological crisis after he could score just 134 runs in 10 innings on his first tour of England because fast bowler James Anderson troubled him outside the off stump. After his return, Kohli sent an SOS to Tendulkar and the two worked out for a few days in the indoor nets at the Bandra Kurla Complex.Kohli later said that their conversation was not just about technical adjustments or batting. “It was about how he faced such times… One thing he said to me was, ‘You should always do what works for you.’ Before the game, if you don’t feel like batting in the nets, don’t bat in the nets. You should never do that because other people are batting for half an hour in the nets,” Kohli had mentioned during an interview with The Cricket Monthly.After this, Kohli scored four centuries in Australia in the 2014-2015 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.Ahead of the England tour in 2025, newly-crowned Test captain Shubman Gill had also admitted that he had sought advice from Tendulkar to succeed in English conditions.His advice to Gill to defend straight and score square enabled him to score 754 runs in the five-match series.Atul Ranade, Tendulkar’s childhood friend and currently the fielding coach of Mumbai’s Ranji team, says, “The best thing about the ‘Master’ is that he knows what situations he is talking about. He makes people who come to him understand how to play in certain situations, respect them and what works for them.”Modern day cricketers have a lot of coaches they can turn to. Why do they still turn to Tendulkar for advice? “What he brings to the table is honesty,” Ranade explained, “He will also keep it as simple as possible, making it easy for the person to understand.Out-of-favor batsman Prithvi Shaw, who scored a century in his first Test match against West Indies in October 2018, not only received technical suggestions during training at the Mumbai Cricket Association ground, but was also asked to improve his methods. Tendulkar reportedly told the captain of the India Under-19 team that won the World Cup in New Zealand in early 2018, “Wapson track pe aaja (Better get back on track).”“He’s always there for them; he always has time to give back to the game. He’s always ready to help in any way he can,” Ranade said.Ranade remembered when Sachin and Ranade were playing a game of badminton in 2014, just a few months after the batsman’s retirement. “He (Tendulkar) told us: ‘Don’t bother me until a single call comes.’ Surprised, we asked, ‘Who will call?’He replied, ‘Rohit will call,’ Ranade said. Rohit Sharma recently started opening for India in ODIs and as expected, he got the call. Tendulkar stopped the game to talk to him for about half an hour.Ranade said that Tendulkar also played a major role in bringing Sharma. Mumbai Indians From Deccan Chargers in 2011. Sharma captained the team in five IPL championships.
