Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players'Gauti told him, whatever happens, you will play all the games': Gambhir's tremendous support for India all-rounder
Gautam Gambhir, despite being one of India's greatest opening batters, has always had a terrific eye for spotting talent, and one such youngster whom he recently backed is currently playing for the Indian team.
Despite being one of India's greatest opening batters, Gautam Gambhir has always had a terrific eye for spotting talent. Gambhir has always been high on praise for Rishabh Pant and look where the India youngster has reached now. Pant is currently the single hottest thing in Indian cricket and with every passing series, his stocks are only getting higher. Another talent whom Gambhir has always backed is Sanju Samson and even though he may not have scaled the same heights as Pant, Samson has a huge fan base.
Navdeep Saini, Suryakumar Yadav were two more names Gambhir was high appreciative of. But recently, as mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants, the former India opener was singing praises of another talent, who has been around in the domestic circuit for a while, and that is Deepak Hooda. The all-rounder from Baroda got his career back on track after a successful IPL 2022, scoring 451 runs. Hooda continues his stellar form from the IPL and struck a century against Ireland before making way for Virat Kohli in the line-up.
But LSG's assistant coach and former India wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya has revealed that Hooda's transformation might not have been possible had it not been for Gambhir's backing in the IPL. Before joining LSG, Hooda was with the Sunrisers Hyderabad where his potential was resulting into much. Things changed once he came aboard the LSG set-up and how.
"Gauti told him, whatever happens, you will play all the games. Deepak was pleasantly surprised, because it's the kind of backing he hadn't got in the IPL," Dahiya told ESPNCricinfo.
And Hooda has not looked back ever since. In his recent three outings for India, Hooda has scores of 47 not out, 104 and 33 to go with a knock of 59 against Derbyshire. Hooda is expected to be part of India's XI against the West Indies starting tonight as Dahiya went on to highlight certain characteristics of the all-rounder which makes him special.
"He's a keen student of the game. He wants to get better every day. There is purpose to his training, the hunger is immense. But sometimes, he could become too intense for someone who is keen to do well. He can be hard on himself at times," added Dahiya.
"The shorter formats can be unforgiving, so we had to speak to him a few times to let go and be less intense. The thing with such a mindset is, when things are going well, you aren't going to find too many issues, but when things don't come off, that is when it could get tricky. But he'll learn, he has a tremendous work ethic, and it's all part of his development as a player."
