Former World Cup winning coach with India Gary Kirsten on Thursday revealed one of the highlights of his tenure with the Men in blue. And it does not involve the World Cup win in this instance. The South African focussed on a rather unexpected anecdote- asking pacer Ishant Sharma to practice batting in the nets so that he could help VVS Laxman save a Test against Australia in Mohali in 2010.
“One highlight in my three years with the Indian team was getting Ishant Sharma to come down to the nets with his batting pads and then to get him to face 48 balls in the Test match against Australia with VVS Laxman to win the game. That was a highlight for me to work on his batting,” Kirsten said.
“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,” Kirsten said.
In the match, set a target of 216, India were left staring down the barrel at 124 for eight but Laxman (73 not out), first with Ishant (31), and then alongside No.11 Pragyan Ojha, guided India to a memorable one-wicket win.
He also lauded Gautam Gambhir for his coaching prowess which led to India drawing the recently concluded Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2-2. Kirsten was Gambhir’s coach when the latter played a fine knock of 97 in the 2011 ODI World Cup final against Sri Lanka.
“I’m really happy for the Indian cricket team for levelling the series and it’s great for Indian cricket. I’m really pleased for Gautam Gambhir as well, I know him well. Really delighted and pleased for what he’s achieved with the team,” Kirsten said.
“They’re (India) doing really well at the moment. We all get excited by the success of the Indian team, I certainly do. They’ve got a great bunch of young players coming through now and it’s really exciting to be supporting them,” added Kirsten.
