“I would be surprised if both Gill and Mavi don’t have illustrious careers” says Jacques Kallis

04/16/2018

Jacques Kallis has revealed that he would be "surprised" if youngsters Shubman Gill and Shivam Mavi don't succeed on the international stage in the years to come. When explaining his role as the coach for KKR, Kallis said that he just tries to make sure that the players do the basics a tad better.

Known as one of the greatest all-rounders to play the game of cricket, Jacques Kallis, the head coach of Kolkata Knight Riders has praised the quality of the two Indian under-19 players in his side while adding that they are still improvising. Both the players featured in KKR’s squad against Sunrisers Hyderabad last match, however didn’t get enough opportunity to showcase their talents. Gill was the leading run-getter of the U-19 World Cup with four successive 50-plus scores in the tournament, including a match-winning century in the semi-final versus Pakistan. Mavi took nine wickets with a superb economy rate of 4.12 while, clocking continuously over 140 kmph.

In this year’s auction, the Kolkata Knight Riders' thinktank invested highly in the promising young talents keeping in mind the future editions of IPL and nurturing them from the very beginning. They bagged Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi and Man of the tournament in under 19 World Cup, Shubman Gill, at 3.2 crores, 3 crores and 1.8 crores respectively. However, Nagarkoti was ruled out of the IPL with a foot injury.

In his column for Times Of India, KKR’s coach Jacques Kallis wrote, “As a coach of KKR, i have seen them from close quarters. Shubman Gill and Shivam Mavi have bags of talent and I would be very surprised if they don’t both have lengthy and illustrious professional careers. Obviously Gill has been a top-order batsman in every team he has played in but if his opportunity, for the moment, lies at six or seven then I’m sure he has the talent and temperament to be successful there. Mavi has plenty of pace which is very exciting and, although his opportunity was limited against the Sunrisers I see plenty more overs from him in the future.”

Two time IPL champions, Kolkata Knight Riders have suffered two back to back losses against Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad which makes their match against Delhi Daredevils, on Monday, a very important affair. Understanding the competitiveness in the last leg of IPL, where each point proves to be vital, Kallis explained, “We have fallen off the early pace with the defeat to Hyderabad and need to get back to winning ways soon. There is rarely much to be pleased with after a disappointing performance like that one but I was really impressed with the effort and determination to defend a sub-par total. We have put ourselves under pressure at the back end of the tournament before and I’d rather not be in that situation again – so winning needs to start again soon, beginning against Delhi on Monday. "

The all-rounder, who played 70 matches for Kolkata Knight Riders from 2011-2014, scored 1603 runs and scalped 48 wickets before joining the coaching staff in 2015. About his coaching stint in a tournament like IPL, where the schedule is jam-packed, he wrote, “Coaching is not rocket science – we just need to make sure our basics are done a little better. We have some tough travel days and a demanding schedule over the next week but the positive side of that is that, if you get on a winning streak, a hard schedule can actually work in your favour.”

“I would be surprised if both Gill and Mavi don’t have illustrious careers” says Jacques Kallis

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