ICC World Cup 2019 | Shikhar Dhawan issues heartfelt thanks to throwdown specialist Raghu

The Indian cricket team have been slogging it out in the last week in order to prepare themselves for their first match of the 2019 ICC World Cup against South Africa in Southampton on Wednesday.

Ahead of their first game, Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan was heaped praise on one man working tirelessly behind the scenes with the team in these practice sessions. Dhawan credited throw-down specialist DGVI Raghavindraa, popularly known as Raghu for the latter's efforts. Since 2011, Raghu has been part of Team India’s backroom staff, working in tandem with the batting coach and also helping the batsmen prepare against pace-bowling with his throw-downs at every single nets or training session.

“Raghu is a legend. He been with the Indian side for a while now. He’s very sharp, I would say he is the most energetic person in the team. We would all like to thank him, without him our batting would not have improved so much. He throws at nearly 150kph tirelessly,” Dhawan told the ICC official website.

Apart from the throw-downs, Raghu also manages a lot of the logistics for the team and also handles the complimentary tickets which the players receive before every international match.

“Not just him, we also have Sanjay bhai (Bangar) now. Both of them start from the beginning of the nets and continue till the end. It’s quite a hard job. I have seen a lot of other coaches come to him and ask him how he does it and try to learn from him. We all are very grateful for him,” Dhawan added.