E-Paper
Sign in
Inside the Yuvraj Singh blueprint: How the two-time World Cup champion is forging India's next-gen fearless batting core
Yuvraj Singh's influence on young Indian cricketers signifies a shift in batting approach. His mentorship emphasizes owning one's style.
A recent clip has gone viral on social media. It is a short clip - a few words, Sanju Samson listening like a man trying to turn brilliance into routine. But it lands because it feels like more than a Nets video. It feels like a snapshot of how India’s next-gen batting identity is being reshaped.
Yuvraj Singh isn’t part of any formal coaching staff. He doesn’t need a title. The point is influence, the kind that travels quietly, from one batter’s notebook to another’s muscle memory.
Yuvraj’s real lesson: fearless isn’t reckless
India’s modern batter is raised in a loud time. Strike-rates get debated like political manifestos. One slow innings becomes a character flow. One ramp shot becomes a personality. “Fearless cricket” is now a slogan - and slogans can make young players mistake aggression for freedom.
Yuvraj’s value is that he has lived on both sides of that trap. He was, in his prime, the face of audacity; he was also a batter who learned that audacity without clarity can collapse under pressure. When he nudges a young player, it reads like: own your personality, own your shot selections, and own the consequences.
That is why the Sanju Samson sighting matters. Sanju has never lacked options. What has often separated him from being a locked-in, format-defining presence is not talent - it’s repeatability. A mentor who has survived the sharp end of Indian expectation can help with the hardest skill of all: staying the same person when the noise changes.
And yes- there is something poetic about Yuvi, the original “why not?” batter, guiding a player whose career has always felt one uninterrupted “why not?”
That proof is already on record
Yuvraj’s mentoring of Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma is no longer a whisper story. It has been reported repeatedly, including details of a lockdown-era training camp that has also involved other young batters.
What’s revealing is how people around that ecosystem describe the impact. Not “he fixed the bat lift”, but he “changed the approach”. In one widely shared account, Abhishek has spoken about how Yuvraj framed the work with an India-first intent, the idea that the practice wasn’t just about scoring in domestic cricket, it was about becoming an international batter who belongs.
That is mentorship in its purest form: making ambition feel structured rather than chaotic.
It’s bigger than just three names
If you look at how Yuvi is contributing, you don’t stop at Gill, Abhishek, and Samson. The wider list matters because it shows a pattern: Yuvraj repeatedly choosing high-upside batters and investing time in them, away from the lights.
During that same training-phase, Anmolpreet Singh has been named among the batters who spent time training under him.
More recently, there has also been reporting around Yuvraj working with another set of younger batters - including Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya.
And then there’s the telling one: Ramandeep Singh, now seen in franchise cricket colours, has spoken publicly about Yuvraj’s behind-the-scenes help - the kind that involves turning up, watching closely, recording drills, and offering specific batting guidance when the youngster needed it.
Put those strands together, and you get the real headline: Yuvraj is helping build India’s fearless generation the only way it can be built - one batter at a time, with personal accountability attached.
Also Read: Yuvraj Singh's new student: After Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill now Sanju Samson is seen training with 2011 WC hero
What he’s really passing down
There are three things Yuvraj Singh gives this generation that spreadsheets and intent presentations can’t.
1) Permission with purpose
Young batters don’t just need freedom. They need the confidence that freedom won’t be weaponised against them the first time they fail. Yuvraj’s presence communicates a simple truth: attacking cricket is not a phase; it’s a legitimate method.
2) A relationship with pressure
Many coaches teach technique. Very few can teach the emotional experience of walking out when a nation expects you to win now. Yuvraj can. And for India’s next wave, raised on the IPL’s tempo and international cricket’s scrutiny, that translation is priceless.
3) Fearless as discipline
The best fearless batters aren’t brave because they don’t feel doubt. They are brave because they have rehearsed doubt and still played their game. This is where mentors matter: they turn mindset into a repeatable routine.
Why the Samson clip will keep resonating
Because it speaks to a broader Indian shift. India is no longer producing just solid batters and then hoping they learn violence later. It is producing batters who see a strike rate of 180 as normal - and then teaching them how to stay intelligent inside that aggression.
So when Yuvraj is seen with Sanju in a net, it isn’t just curiosity. It is a symbol. India’s fearless generation is not just born in leagues; it's being shaped in private sessions, by a man who once redefined what Indian batting ambition could look like - and now wants the next lot to do it without fear, and without losing their head.
