Latest news with #Nehra
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Youngsters can pull off a surprise in Ind-Eng series: Former India pacer Nehra
CHENNAI: AS India get ready to take on England in the first Test at Headingley, Gujarat Titans head coach Ashish Nehra backed the youngsters in the team to pull off a surprise in the five-Test series that begins on Friday. The former India left-arm pacer also felt batter B Sai Sudharsan will grab the chance with both hands whenever he makes his debut and that Prasidh Krishna could be an surprise package. 'According to me, Sai Sudharsan is a run machine, and he should get a chance on this tour although he is a new player. Even if the pitch conditions in England are tough and if he plays all five Test matches, then the rest will be history,' said Nehra in a virtual interaction facilitated by Sony Sports Network on Thursday. Nehra had nothing but praise for the new Test captain Shubman Gill, who he had mentored in the IPL as coach of the Gujarat Titans. 'I personally rate him. Shubman was never captain earlier for the Under-23 squad or Ranji Trophy, but I have spent two to three years with him, and you get to know the guy. He is a quick learner, and is very keen to learn all the time. Since he has played and experienced T20 cricket, which is more fast-paced, he is very composed for his age and is very mature for a 25-year-old. There are so many other things where you can be good or better, but that only comes with experience and playing more matches,' said Nehra. 'I know (with) runs nobody can predict, but early runs can take the pressure off Shubman. You feel more confident on scoring more runs.' he added.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Gill has improved massively in the past 12 months as captain: Nehra
Mumbai: Like several far-reaching decisions in Indian cricket successfully tried out first in the Indian Premier League (IPL) – such as appointing Rohit Sharma captain, the emergence of Jasprit Bumrah as a world beater and Suryakumar Yadav the T20 batting marauder – the national selectors would hope Shubman Gill's ascent to Test captaincy will also come good. Gill will become the fifth youngest Indian captain – counting Ravi Shastri's solitary Test – when he walks out for the toss at Leeds on Friday in the first of the five-Test India-England series to be broadcast on Sony Sports Network. Gill cut his teeth as captain for Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL. 'From his first year as captain, there has been a massive difference in Shubman the captain in the past twelve months,' Ashish Nehra, GT head coach, told a select group of media of which HT was a part. 'He might have been a little shy and introverted before, but he has improved a lot. He communicates better with his bowlers. In between, he has also gained international experience.' Leading in Test cricket will present an entirely different set of challenges. But Nehra believes he has already shown traits of being calm under pressure. 'I personally rate him that's why we made him a captain,' said Nehra. 'He is a quick learner, a confident guy. He has his own mind which is great. I feel in Test and ODI cricket you get a little more time. In T20 cricket, you need to be even more calm. Shubman is very calm for his age, very mature for a 25–year-old.' For GT, Gill was elevated as captain after Hardik Pandya's surprise transfer to Mumbai Indians. The first year was a learning curve with Gill himself saying it took him time to compartmentalise batting and captaincy. Leading India would bring its own pressures. It would help if Gill has runs to show because that is the quickest way to earn the respect from teammates. 'If the top three score runs, that will make life easy for Shubman at No. 4 and the rest of the batting line up. Of course, you feel more confident as a batter when you score runs,' said Nehra. 'He will have his own expectations with himself. The way I see it, it's not just about the results, it's what sort of cricket they play. There have been recent series in England where India played a lot better than the scorecard suggested. So, it will be key to play good and exciting cricket.' With India's batting thin on experience, Bumrah's role as the leader of the pace pack and how Gill is able to maximise his impact while managing his workload will be of huge interest. 'On Bumrah's workload, the judge won't be Gill, it will be the fast bowler himself,' said Nehra. 'I have been hearing that Bumrah will play the 1st, 3rd and the 5th Test. But what if it rains in the first Test? You can't make these plans well in advance. Who knows, he may feel good to play back-to-back Tests. 'On some occasions, we have seen Bumrah picking up five wickets in 12-13 overs. That's how skilful he is. It's the bowler who will tell the physio and the captain on how his body is coping. You can't script this. This is not a movie.'
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
Shubman Gill picks the difference between Ashish Nehra and Gautam Gambhir as coaches
Newly appointed India Test captain Shubman Gill has picked the two differences he has found in Ashish Nehra and Gautam Gambhir's coaching style. Gill, who took over as Gujarat Titans captain last year in the Indian Premier League, has been working with Nehra who is mostly hands on. On the other hand, he now gets a chance to work with Gambhir in the national team set-up, who has come across an intense character. Speaking to Dinesh Karthik in Sky Cricket, Gill was asked how he has to adapt to the contrasting styles of both the coaches. 'It will be fun,' Gill said. 'Ashu pa (Nehra) is very, like you said, very hands-on, very animated and very expressive in terms of his personality and your personality kind of reflects on your coaching style as well. So he's very expressive. Whereas Gautam is very determined, very committed. And he's also very clear with his communication, what he wants from the players and what kind of mindset that he would want the players to have. And I think Gautam bhai focuses more on the kind of attitude or the mindset that he requires from the team or the players. They're very different personalities, but at the end of the day, you're all working towards a common goal. The paths might be different, but you're trying to reach the same destination,' Gill noted. With England thin on bowling resources, there is a chance for India to go after their spinners, in particular Shoaib Bashir who made an impressive start to his Test career when the two teams played last year. But Gill said, India are not targeting anyone in particular. 'Our batting order is relatively inexperienced and their bowling attack is relatively inexperienced. So I think there's a good balance there. And we want to play each game or each session as it is. We don't want to, or maybe you might feel, when we are batting this certain bowler could be bowling well. It might well be Bashir, who is bowling well on a given day and we might feel like 'okay, we might not need to take too many risks against him'. So it's all about what's happening in that situation or in that condition,' Gill said. Gill said before heading into the series, he reviewed India's last two series in England which they lost 4-1 in 2018 and 2-2 in 2022. 'I looked at the previous couple of series because that's relatively more relevant, more closer to how we are going to play or to how the England team plays. And that's what I looked at. I think it's very important to take that confidence into this series because I personally feel that we had two very good series. We might have not won those series, but there were a lot of positives that we took from that series,' Gill added.
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Shubman Gill breaks silence on Nehra vs Gambhir: who's the better coach?
As Shubman Gill prepares for his much-anticipated Test captaincy debut, he opens up in an exclusive chat with Dinesh Karthik for Sky Sports Cricket. Gill shares honest insights on working under two cricketing greats — Ashish Nehra and Gautam Gambhir. From calling Nehra 'hands-on and animated' to praising Gambhir for being 'committed and crystal clear,' Gill breaks down the contrasting coaching styles of the two IPL legends. While Nehra has guided Gujarat Titans to consistent success, including an IPL title, Gambhir has led both LSG and KKR to the playoffs — even lifting the trophy with KKR in 2024. Who's the better coach? The expressive Nehra or the focused Gambhir? Watch the full video to find out what Shubman Gill really thinks.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
Shubman Gill compares playing under Ashish Nehra and ‘very different' Gautam Gambhir: ‘Gauti bhai is…'
The toughest challenge of Shubman Gill's young career lies less than a week away, when he will take to the field at Headingley in Leeds as the captain of the Indian Test team, maybe one of the most high-pressure roles in international sports. While the Indian team has bid farewell to a lot of its senior figures, one relationship remains for Gill to take advantage of — that with his coach, Gautam Gambhir. Speaking in a sit-down interview with Dinesh Karthik for Sky Cricket, Gill was asked how his experience has been under two very different coaches in Gambhir with the Indian national team over the last year, and under Ashish Nehra with Gujarat Titans in the IPL over the last 4 years. 'It'll be very fun (to have someone as different as Gambhir as coach,)' explained Gill to Karthik. 'Ashu pa (Nehra), as you said, is very hands-on, very animated, very expressive, in terms of his personality and your personality reflects on your coaching style as well, so he's very expressive.' 'Whereas Gauti bhai is very determined, very committed, and he's also very clear in his communications, what he wants from the players and what kind of mindset he would want the players to have,' continued the new Indian captain. While Gambhir has appeared to be a very intense coach throughout his tenure and also as mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders, Nehra has made an impression as the sort of coach who enjoys being right on the boundary's edge and deeply involved with his players throughout a game, often to good effect in the IPL. Nevertheless, Gill said he enjoyed having two such distinct coaches, which only gives him a window into different avenues of creating a successful team. 'Gauti bhai, he focuses more on the attitude or mindset he requires from the team or the players. I think they're very different personalities, but end of the day you're all working towards a common goal. The paths might be different but you're trying to reach the same destination,' said Gill. With many questions hanging over whether Gill can quickly adapt to the unique demands of Test captaincy, there is no doubt that having access to two such experienced leaders will only be beneficial for his growth as one himself. Whether the Gambhir-Gill duo survives into the future will depend a lot on how they start off in England this summer.
