‘Gavaskar won’t make an effort to talk to Sehwag or Chopra’: Virender Sehwag says Prithvi Shaw could’ve approached him during his rough patch

Shaw, who has had a dismal IPL 2023 season, struck a fine half-century in the side’s winning cause last night against Punjab Kings.

Speaking on Cricbuzz, Sehwag revealed that he, along with Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw had met during an ad shoot where they spent six hours but none of them talked about cricket.

“He (Prithvi Shaw) did an ad shoot with me. Shubman Gill was also there. None of them talked about cricket for once. We were there for 6 hours. If you want to talk to someone then you have to approach them,” Sehwag said.

Sehwag, then cited his own example and revealed how he once approached Sunil Gavaskar when he wished to speak to him and said Shaw could ‘ve done the same.

“When I was new to the team, I wanted to talk to Sunny Bhai (Gavaskar), So I said to John Wright that ‘I’m still a new player, I don’t know whether Sunny Bhai will meet me or not’, but you should organise that meeting. So Wright organised a dinner in 2003-04 for me and I also said that my (opening) partner Aakash Chopra will also come so that we can talk about batting. So he came and had dinner with us. So, you have to make that effort. Sunil Gavaskar won’t make an effort to talk to Sehwag or Chopra. You have to request him,” revealed Sehwag.

The former India batter then said that if a player is going through a rough patch he can always come up to a senior player and talk about it.

“He gave his input and we talked for a long. And we were rewarded for that conversation. But you have to put in that effort. Gavaskar will never make an effort to talk to Virender Sehwag or Aakash Chopra. So one has to make a request for that. If Shaw handed such a request so I’m sure someone would have…he is playing for Delhi, so if you wanted to talk, he should have handed a request to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of DC,” he said.

“In cricket, no matter how talented you are. If you are not mentally up, if you are not fit mentally or don’t tune your mind. Then nothing can be done,” he added.