Gary Kirsten, under whose coaching India won the 2011 World Cup, has revealed his biggest challenge in the role. Surprisingly, it’s not the WC-winning campaign but making a star bowler come to the nets for batting.
“The biggest challenge was getting Ishant Sharma to come down to the nets with his bat and pads and then to get him to face 48 balls in a Test match against England with VVS Laxman to win the Test match. That was a highlight for me to work on his batting. I really enjoyed that from a leadership perspective because he didn’t think he could bat, and he still can’t bat that well. But we kind of helped him get through that Test match and do really well in it,” Kirsten said in an event on Thursday, as quoted by News18.
Recently, Kirsten made a massive revelation on the campaign. He has said that all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, who turned out to be the Player of the Series in the quadrennial event, was not a certainty in the team that was set to be picked for it. Yuvraj had a dull 2010, but as fate would have it, he was trusted and picked for the World Cup next year. He repaid the faith by playing an intruemental role in India winning the title. Yuvraj scored 362 runs while also picking 15 wickets in the tournament. MS Dhoni-led India defeated Sri Lanka in the summit clash of the tournament by 6 wickets as the side lifted the World Cup after 28 years.
“Thank goodness we picked him because it was flipping close, he was. It was not a slam-dunk selection. The selectors kind of debated around the 15 players,” Kirsten told Rediff.com.
Kirsten revealed that he and the then India captain Dhoni both were keen to have the all-rounder in the team.
“I was very keen to have him in the team as was Dhoni, because of the experience that he brought to the group. And look at the World Cup he ended up having,” the ex-India coach said.
“I was always very fond of Yuvraj. We had this kind of great relationship where like, he used to frustrate the hell out of me sometimes, but I just loved him. He was good. I just want him to be scoring runs all the time because when I watch him bat, it’s just like amazing to watch,” he added.
Kirsten also said that Paddy Upton, then India’s mental conditioning and strategic leadership coach, too played a role in helping Yuvraj reach his best.
“But there was a journey he had to walk and credit to Paddy (Upton). Paddy did a lot of work with Yuvi to get him ready for that World Cup. Yuvi himself made some key decisions around getting himself prepared and ready for the World Cup,” Kirsten said.