How Yuvraj Singh’s push-and-pull approach created stars like Abhishek

• Yuvraj Singh steps into an IPL coaching role after mentoring Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill and other young players.

• His empathetic approach draws on his own experience, big-match expertise and understanding of young cricketers.

• Delhi Capitals’ 2027 campaign will be Yuvraj’s biggest test yet in his coaching career.

Every time Abhishek Sharma comes up with one of his specials — like the one in Wellington yesterday — the excitement in his mentor Yuvraj Singh is hard to miss. After teasing Abhishek for not being able to match his feat of a 12-ball fifty (the Indian opener took 14 balls), Yuvi was quick to doff his hat to his protégé for what has been the fastest hundred in T20 cricket.

‘Many congratulations, sir Abhishek, on the fastest 100 in T20 cricket. I had no doubt that with your talent and hard work, you would achieve this one day. This is just the start of many records to be broken. Once a great man said: “When people throw stones at you, turn them into milestones. Let the bat do the talking.” And that’s exactly what you are doing. Proud of you! Stay humble and keep following the process,’ Yuvraj posted on his X handle.

No prizes for guessing that the quote is borrowed from the great Sachin Tendulkar. Abhishek’s evolution from a promising batting all-rounder in the India U19 set-up to one of the most feared T20 batters around the globe took a few years and was the culmination of a ‘process’, as they say. But the world knows who is responsible for it.

After working as a backroom mentor for two of his famous wards — Shubman Gill and Abhishek — for a number of years, not to mention the likes of Prabhsimran Singh and domestic standout Salil Arora, Yuvi has agreed to step out of the shadows to become the assistant and batting coach of IPL franchise Delhi Capitals for the 2027 season. It is where he reunites with his former captain Sourav Ganguly, with whom he shares an exceptional bond. But it is common knowledge that heavyweight support staff are not always a guarantee of success in this marathon league.

The IPL is still nearly six months away, but Yuvraj’s evolution as a coach and strategist — particularly with young talents from his home state of Punjab, not to mention someone like Rishabh Pant, who had also reached out to him well before his IPL trade from Lucknow Super Giants to Delhi — has been quite a revelation.

The 44-year-old white-ball great had come across more as a laidback personality who preferred to keep himself busy playing in overseas seniors’ leagues and doing promotional work for his cancer foundation, while a number of his peers, such as India head coach Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, took up coaching roles.

It was during the Covid lockdown that Yuvraj decided to invest time in the young crop of Punjab players, almost gurukul fashion, by keeping them at home. He set long-term goals for them, offering empathetic leadership and sharing his unparalleled expertise in big-match mental conditioning.

Abhishek and Shubman, in particular, were extremely fortunate to have a big brother who was one of the cleanest strikers of the ball, played a key role in India winning two World Cups and survived a rare form of cancer to stage an international comeback in less than a year.

How does Yuvi himself see his coaching philosophy? Asked by PTI during an interview last year whether he had picked up any traits from his overtly disciplinarian father, he said: “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.”

There are enough stories doing the rounds about how Yuvraj puts these thoughts into practice — with a holistic, modern training approach in which he often encourages his wards to take up golf to stay fresh and clear-headed during long and gruelling tournaments. The pace of such a regimen is, of course, constructive and vastly different from the chaotic ecosystem of the IPL, with its emphasis on building early momentum, hectic travel and commercial commitments.

It is going to be his biggest challenge yet in his coaching avatar. But his biggest advantage is this: Yuvraj Singh has been there and done that!