Gill, Abhishek receive unique advice from mentor Yuvraj to sharpen cricketing skills: 'I encourage them to play...'

Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma have received a unique piece of advice from their mentor Yuvraj Singh, with the legendary all-rounder advising the young stars to take up golf in order to sharpen their cricketing skills.

Yuvraj, who knows a thing or two about delivering match-winning performances in global events, encouraged Gill and Abhishek to take up the sport during the next Indian Premier League season, keeping in mind their hectic schedule.

‘Yuvi’ explains the importance of golf for cricketers

Yuvraj, who played key roles in India’s triumphs in the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 World Cup, is among a host of cricket stars who have taken up golf after retirement, which includes fellow Indian legends such as Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni, among others.

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“I have told them to play golf and I encourage them to play. It’s very hard to find time, but I think the IPL is a good time for them to actually find time and hit some balls,” Yuvraj said at a launch event for the Indian Golf Premier League in New Delhi on Thursday.

“If you get out, you’re sitting in the room thinking about the next game. But if it were the second day, you would have just got out and played golf with your friends. You go to a game with a fresh mind. Sometimes it’s good to go and play another sport and come back fresh,” he added.

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Yuvraj also touched upon the culture of playing golf that’s prevalent in teams such as Australia, England and South Africa, where players take up the sport from a young age instead of waiting till their retirement.

“Now they are superstars of the game, and they have to decide what’s going to help them be better. I feel that any sport that helps you relax is going to be less taxing on the body, more fruitful for the mind. If you see the culture of golf, speaking of Australia, South Africa, and England, the majority of the best cricketers have played golf from a very young age,” the dashing middle-order batter added.

‘I would have scored 3,000 more runs’

Yuvraj had quite the stellar international career in which he represented India in over 400 matches, including 304 ODIs between 2000 and 2017 – scoring more than 11,000 runs across formats.

The 43-year-old, however, claims he would have scored another 3,000 runs had he taken up golf earlier in his career, which was in response to a comment by iconic all-rounder Kapil, in which the 1983 World Cup-winning captain had claimed he would have scored another 2,000 runs.

“I agree with Kapil paaji, he said 2,000, I would have scored 3,000 more runs if I had started playing the sport during my early career,” Yuvraj added during the event.