Srinagar: Former India cricketer and a legend Sunil Gavaskar has highlighted the role of team mentor’s in grooming youngsters during IPL 2023 and pointed out transformation of Afghanistan pacer Naveen ul Haq under Gautam Gambhir.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will meet record-time winners Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Eliminator on Wednesday. Despite missing the services of skipper KL Rahul, Lucknow Super Giants managed to revive their campaign by securing the third spot in the IPL 2023 standings.
Giving a special mention to LSG mentor Gambhir, former Indian skipper Gavaskar credited the ex-Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper for grooming the younger generation of cricketers in the celebrated league.
“Look at the progress made by Rinku Singh under Chandu Pandit, the terrific coming back to form of Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy, and Nitish Rana growing as a captain. Under the guidance of Gautam Gambhir, see how Ravi Bishnoi, Ayush Badoni, and Naveen-Ul-Haq are flowering, as also under Ashish Nehra and Hardik Pandya, who invariably find a new player of the match. That’s simply because communication and reach are easy for the domestic Indian players in these teams. Mind you, there will always be the overseas champ who has a way with young players and can act as a guide and mentor to them. These are rare exceptions and not the norm,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
Gambhir was appointed the global mentor for all Lucknow Super Giants teams last year.
From his animated team talks to his noteworthy dugout reactions, Gambhir has occasionally made his presence felt during the IPL.
Earlier in the league, Gambhir got into an altercation with former India skipper Virat Kohli after Lucknow’s match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL 2023. LSG star Naveen and Kohli were also involved in a heated exchange after the match. Kohli and Gambhir were fined 100% of their match fees while LSG’s Naveen had to part ways with 50 percent of his game wages at the time.