During his time as a player, Jacques Kallis was one of the most revered figures in the game. His numbers in the game put him among the very best of all time – which is why when he predicts the future of youngsters, it should be taken seriously.

Dinesh Karthik came under a lot of scrutiny for playing Shubman Gill at number 7 and bowling Shivam Mavi his first over in the 15^th over the game and keeping his spell confined to that over only.

Jacques Kallis, however, defended the Kolkata captain for playing Gill at 7 but also added that he, along with Mavi, will have wonderful careers, respectively, at the top level.

“As a coach of KKR, I have seen them from close quarters. Shubman Gill and Shivam Mavi have bags of talent and I would be very surprised if they don’t both have lengthy and illustrious professional careers.

“Obviously, Gill has been a top-order batsman in every team he has played in but if his opportunity, for the moment, lies at six or seven then I’m sure he has the talent and temperament to be successful there. Mavi has plenty of paces which is very exciting and, although his opportunity was limited to the Sunrisers I see plenty more overs from him in the future,” he told Times of India.

The legendary South African then stated that he hoped to start winning and avoiding a difficult situation during the crunch-end of the tournament. He also added that he was happy with the fight the boys put up against Hyderabad while defending the small total.

“We have fallen off the early pace with the defeat to Hyderabad and need to get back to winning ways soon.

“There is rarely much to be pleased with after a disappointing performance like that one but I was really impressed with the effort and determination to defend a sub-par total. We have put ourselves under pressure at the back end of the tournament before and I’d rather not be in that situation again – so winning needs to start again soon, beginning against Delhi [Daredevils] on Monday.”