Shashank Singh recalled MS Dhoni’s priceless advice regarding the pressure on the players who have the ‘finisher’ tag associated with them.
Right-handed batter Shashank Singh was one of the breakout stars of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. His performance in the middle order was so great that Punjab Kings retained him as an uncapped player ahead of the mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Shashank has now recalled the valuable advice he received from MS Dhoni.
Shashank Singh recalled MS Dhoni’s priceless advice regarding the pressure on the players who have the ‘finisher’ tag associated with them. (ANI )
In IPL 2024, Shashank Singh hammered 354 runs at a strike rate of 164.65. He also had an average of 44.25. The batter had a roller coaster journey in last year’s tournament. PBKS initially claimed that signing him in the IPL 2024 auction was a mistake, as they were confused by another player having the same name.
However, after the franchise coped a lot of criticism, PBKS on social media stated that they always wanted to sign Shashank Singh, the batter.
Shashank Singh has now recalled how MS Dhoni once told him that a player is among the world’s best five or ten cricketers if he wins three games out of ten for his team.
“Once, I had a conversation with Mahi Bhai (MS Dhoni) about this finisher’s thing. So he told me that if you’re winning three games for your team out of 10, you are in the world’s five or 10 best players,” Shashank told news agency PTI.
“That gave me real confidence that it’s important to accept that every match is not possible practically for me to win. So, I just try to collect those good points, which I did. Just try to minus those stupid point or points which were not sensible,” he added.
‘Working on technical aspects’
Since Shashank Singh emerged as a breakout talent, teams are expected to devise well-thought-out plans to tackle the Punjab Kings batter. However, the right-hander is well aware and is adding a few new tricks to his batting arsenal.
“I have been working on a few technical aspects both on the batting and bowling front. I am yet to meet him but I’m in touch with Ricky sir (new head coach Ricky Ponting). On the batting front, I have been working on bettering my pull and hook. I’ve started reverse sweeping because I feel that sometimes on slow wickets where it’s difficult to hit the ball towards long on, long off, towards deep wicket; it’s better to just reverse sweep it or sweep it,” he said.
“So the last two camps, I’ve worked a lot, I’ve played what maybe 1000 balls, reverse sweeping to spinners. I have played the reverse sweep in the past but I just want to be more confident going into the season,” said Shashank who attributes the sharp growth in his game to clarity of thought,” he added.
Punjab Kings recently announced Shreyas Iyer as their captain for IPL 2025. It needs to be seen whether Shreyas and head coach Ricky Ponting can bring PBKS their first IPL title win.
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