‘Things came to a boil’: Ex-India fielding coach R Sridhar reveals 2021 row with Shubman Gill – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

The Indian team has seen several fresh faces over the last few years thanks to the emergence of talented youngsters. From Shubman Gill to Arshdeep Singh, a number of newcomers have debuted in the Blue jersey and made their names.

Among them, some have already cemented their places in different formats, posing a challenge to the place of senior cricketers. In this case, Shubman Gill should come first thanks to his swashbuckling form in recent times. His explosive double-century in the opening ODI against New Zealand earned him many plaudits as well as strengthened his position in the Indian unit.

In the wake of the innings, an interesting tale from Gill’s earlier days in the international circuit has been revealed in the autobiography of ex-Indian fielding coach R Sridhar- Coaching Beyond: My Days with the Indian cricket team.

Sridhar has spent a significant amount of time with Team India. Apart from former coach Ravi Shastri, he was also part of the coaching staff under Anil Kumble and Duncan Fletcher. Thus, he quite closely saw the debut of present-day superstars like KL Rahul and Shubman Gill. Analysing his past experiences, Sridhar noted in his book that he found a lack of fielding effort among modern-generation cricketers, in contrast to their predecessors.

Pulling out the reference to KL Rahul, Sridhar said that he had forced him to field at the silly point when the opener earned his India cap in 2014. However, as stated by him, the mindset is different in the guys coming in now. “Some are just not very willing to put in the hard work,” he noted.

To explain this, he brought up the mention of Shubman Gill, who had stunned the cricket fraternity with his remarkable 91-run knock in the famous Gabba Test in early 2021.

However, Gill could not continue the momentum in the next series against England and managed to score just one half-century during the series. Putting aside his batting performance, Sridhar, in his book, focused on the youngster’s effort in fielding. Recalling the interesting incident, the former fielding coach wrote, “Things came to a boil with Shubman in Ahmedabad during the last Test against England in March 2021. I contemplated having a word with Ravi about it but held my horses. Then I took Gill out for lunch instead,” writes Sridhar in the book.

Sridhar took time to make Gill understand the importance of fielding in his career. He gave details of the conversation in a portion of his book that reads, “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 an 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.”

Looking at his recent games, Shubman Gill has certainly worked on his fielding. While his batting has become one of the crucial components for India, his fielding ability seems to have improved too.

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