Even though Yuvraj Singh is not a licensed coach, his contributions to next generation stars in Indian cricket certainly ranks him among the country's greatest coaches. Two prominent figures from the Yuvraj Singh school of coaching are Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill.
Yuvraj, a two-time World Cup winner and one of India's finest match-winners, has worked with them since their early days even though he never officially coached them. And see where it has taken them. In a short period, one of them has emerged as the world's top T20I batter, and the other is India's ODI and Test skipper.
Yuvraj and his father, Yograj, have very different coaching instincts. Yuvraj takes a completely different stance than Yograj, who advocates for severe punishment and tough-love techniques. Yuvraj opened up about it and gave a thorough explanation of his tutoring methodology.
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"I am definitely nothing like Yograj Singh. I am a very different person, and a very different personality. My style of coaching is very different. I believe when you are coaching someone or mentoring someone, you need to be in their shoes and you need to understand their mindset, what they are going through, rather than telling them what to do. It has to be like a push and pull. You take some and you give some. So it is important to understand how to be in the head of a 19-year-old," Yuvraj told PTI.
There have been stories of Yuvraj being subjected to Yograj's harshness. Yuvraj was forced to take up cricket and pursue a career after he famously threw away his skating shoes. Before making his India debut a few months later, Yuvraj won the Under-19 World Cup in 2000 while playing under the captaincy of Mohammad Kaif.
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Yuvraj became a legend after scoring an incredible 84 against Australia in the ICC Knockout Champions Trophy and was instrumental in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups. Even so, Yuvraj remains loyal to his own approach, remembering that when he was younger not many people really comprehended the thinking of a teenager.
"When I was 19 years old, nobody understood the challenges that I was facing, so when I see a 19 or a 20-year-old, I know what challenges they are facing mentally, and it is about listening to them, understanding their mindset and working accordingly rather than telling them what to do," pointed out Yuvraj.
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