Prepare Vaibhav Sooryavanshi "For The Worst": Team India Gets Golden Advice From Ex-Mental Conditioning Coach
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is stepping into the big boys' club now. In a week's time, he is likely to become the youngest-ever player in the Indian men's cricket team
- Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is set to become the youngest player in the Indian men's cricket team soon
- Sooryavanshi has shown vulnerability to short balls in the recent Tri-Nation A series
- Mental coach Paddy Upton emphasizes preparing Sooryavanshi for failure and criticism
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is stepping into the big boys' club now. In a week's time, he is likely to become the youngest-ever player in the Indian men's cricket team. While his batting prowess is unquestionable, his recent outing in the Tri-Nation A series has shown that Sooryavanshi is vulnerable to the short ball. While failures are normal at the top level, dealing with them becomes extra important. For Indian cricket mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, who has worked with the 2011 World Cup-winning cricket team and the country's Olympic medal-winning hockey team, it is important for the management to prepare Sooryavanshi for failure.
"One of the first things I would do is prepare him for failure. To say there's a good chance that in your first two or three innings, you don't score runs. What is that going to feel like? What's that going to look like? What's that experience going to be like? And how are you going to manage yourself? So one of the key things is to prepare him for failure. That's going to come, whether it comes now or later, it's going to come," he told Sportstar.
"The failure is not going to be the problem. It's how does he manage himself around the failure and how does he manage himself around all the criticism and the noise and the stories that are going to come out when he inevitably has a run of poor form. So, I would prepare him for the worst, and very often that's a very good starting point," he said.
Meanwhile, BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia has explained the Board's decision to allow Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's parents to accompany him on the white-ball tour of Ireland and England later this month. The big-hitting Sooryavanshi, who has earned his maiden call-up in the Indian T20 set-up, has been selected for seven games (two vs Ireland and five vs England) on the tour, which begins in just over a week on June 26 in Belfast.
"You see, not all national teams at the senior level have a 14 or 15-year-old in their squad. After many decades, we have someone like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi," Saikia told PTI in an exclusive interview.
"At one point in time, it was Sachin Tendulkar (16 and a half at the time of his Test debut) who made it to the national team at such a young age. When such a young kid is part of the senior team, there are obviously a lot of issues that can crop up," he added without elaborating.
"Therefore, to make him comfortable and help him get used to an adult environment, where all the other players are above 18 years of age and the team management members are also adults, we felt it would be helpful," Saikia, a former Ranji Trophy player for Assam, stated further.
India Cricket Team