Shubman Gill Sought Advice from Tendulkar, Smith & Williamson Before England Tour

Shubman Gill: Before the England tour, Shubman Gill knew there was a small flaw in his batting that needed to be fixed. It was a chink in his armour that had been troubling him for a while, resulting in frustrating dismissals – a slow transfer of weight onto the front that would crack open a fatal gap between bat and pad.

It wasn’t something that had crept up in his game recently. Given how well Gill had done despite that small flaw, it wasn’t tended to. But ahead of the England tour, the young star knew he had to fix it if he wanted to be the best batter on tour.

So began the work behind the scenes in the nets as he started working on his technique during IPL 2025. But he was unsure.

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According to timesofindia.com, Gill was wondering if the big change would work or would be a disaster. The impact of success or failure would be multiplied many times over since Gill was also going to make his Test captaincy debut in England.

In this scenario, Gill turned to three legends of the game: Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson and each gave him a different perspective which the 25-year-old absorbed and used in England where he broke several batting records.

As per the publication, Gill was nervous before talking to Tendulkar, widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers to have played the game. The master calmed him down and told him to make sure his bat faced mid-off so he wouldn’t drag the ball onto the stumps and instead send the ball to square leg.

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And for Gill, was very sure that if Tendulkar has pointed out an error in his technique, it must be right. So he started sweating it out in the nets to fix the flaw.

From Smith, the advice was more about mental aspect and the length that England pacer will bowl to Gill. He told Gill to shadow practice and build muscle memory before reworking his technique.

The New Zealand maestro told Gill to play close to the body, not go for drives, be patient for 45 minutes and then dig in.

The words of wisdom from the three legends did wonders for Gill. He went on to score 754 runs across the five-match Test series which ended in a 2-2 draw. At one stage, Gill was even in the reckoning for breaking Don Bradman’s all-time record of 974 runs in a Test series.

Gill’s 754 is the highest by an Indian captain in a Test series. It’s also the most by any skipper in an India-England series.

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