As he took to the stage to receive the Player of the Tournament award after India clinched the T20 World Cup on Sunday, Sanju Samson emotionally recalled the heartbreak and dashed dreams he felt after a poor spell. Luckily for Samson, help was just a phone call away.Samson became the latest among many Indian batsmen to seek help from the god of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar. Like the others, he was not disappointed.Push boundaries with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!“When I was sitting outside Australia (during the T20Is in October)… instead of playing the game, I was thinking about what kind of mentality is required,” Samson said. “I contacted ‘Sir’ and had a long chat with him.”Samson spoke from the heart about the value of Sachin’s guidance – “clarity, game preparation, awareness and game awareness”. He revealed, “Even the night before the final, sir called me to check on how I was feeling.”
There is a reason why Sachin is called the “batting university” by Sunil Gavaskar, who was Tendulkar’s mentor. Former India head coach and former South Africa opening batsman Gary Kirsten also mentioned Tendulkar in similar terms.Despite being away from international cricket for more than a decade, Tendulkar remains keen to watch matches and make keen observations on the technique of batsmen. The Master does not express these opinions publicly, but he is always willing to help if players approach him.“Tendulkar brings honesty and makes things simple”Think back to the 2011 World Cup in India, a year before the tournament, Yuvraj Singh went through a terrible time with the bat. Questions linger as to whether he should make the team. During the training camp, when the left-hander’s form and fitness were declining, Tendulkar told him: “You will matter when it matters most.” Yuvraj went on to become the Player of the Tournament.In 2014, Virat Kohli said he was mentally broken after pacer James Anderson traumatized him outside off-stump after scoring just 134 runs in 10 innings on his maiden tour of England. After returning, Kohli sent an SOS to Tendulkar and the two worked on the indoor netting at the Bandra-Kurla complex for a few days.Kohli later said their talks were about more than technical tweaks or batting. “It’s about how he handles moments like this… One thing he told me is, ‘You should always do what works for you.’ Before a match, if you don’t want to bat in the nets, don’t bat in the nets. You should never do it just because someone else is batting in the nets for half an hour,” Kohli mentioned in an interview with Cricket Monthly.Kohli then smashed 400 runs in Australia in the 2014-2015 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.Ahead of the 2025 tour of England, new Test captain Shubman Gill also admitted that he sought advice from Tendulkar on how to succeed in English conditions.His advice to Gill on defending straight balls and scoring square balls resulted in him scoring 754 runs in the five-match series.“The best thing about ‘Guru’ is that he knows what conditions he is talking about. He makes people close to him understand how to play in certain conditions, respect them and do what works for them,” said Atul Ranade, Tendulkar’s childhood friend and now the defensive coach of Mumbai Ranji.Modern cricketers have many coaches available to them. So why do they still seek advice from Tendulkar? “What he brings is honesty,” explains Ranade, “and he also keeps it as simple as possible, which makes it easy for people to understand.”Out-of-favour batsman Prithvi Shaw, who hit a hundred on debut against West Indies in October 2018, was not only given technical tips but also told to correct his ways while training at the Mumbai Cricket Association training ground. “Waapas track pe aaja (better to get back on track),” Tendulkar reportedly said to the captain of the Indian U-19 team that won the World Cup in New Zealand in early 2018.“He was always there for them; he always had time to give back to the game. He was always ready to help in any way,” Ranade said.Ranade remembers that in 2014, Sachin and Ranade were playing badminton a few months after the batsman retired. “He (Tendulkar) told us: ‘Don’t disturb me unless a call comes’. We were confused and asked, ‘Who is going to call?’“Rohit will call,” Ranade said. Rohit Sharma had just started playing ODIs for India and as expected, his call came. Tendulkar paused the game and spoke to him for nearly half an hour.Ranade said Tendulkar also played an important role in bringing Sharma into office. mumbai indians Retired from Deccan Chargers in 2011. Sharma later captained the team to five IPL titles.
