Hope has been benefited by training with purpose: Nic Pothas
© Getty Images
|| CF Correspondent ||
West Indian interim head coach Nic Pothas believe that in-form Shai Hope is reaping the benefit of training with purpose.
According to the South African, Hope is getting better day by day as he is developing a better knowledge about his game in the recent past and working according to minimize his weaknesses.
Hope scored two centuries in the three-match ODI’s while his blistering half-century helped the tourist take a 1-0 lead in the ongoing three-match T20Is.
“Shai Hope is a world class cricketer. Shai’s biggest ability is his strength to adapt and to learn,’’ Pothas was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
“He has a very open mind to learning. In ODI cricket, he was striking at 66 although he was averaging 40, and he understood very quickly that ODI cricket is not actually about your average but your batting index. Strike rate plays a very big role, as well as the runs scored at the top of the order, and Shai has embraced that, he understood that,’’ he said.
“When he comes to practice and when he’s away from the game, he does a lot of research and he trains with a purpose in order to improve that. So, Shai is a constamment professional… The way he eats, the way he trains, the way he prepares, and the way he does his recovery etc,’’ he said.
“He is an ultimate professional, which is not a surprise when you see his success,’’ he added.
Pothas also explained the logic going behind training with a purpose.
“It comes from the player. When a player comes to training, he doesn’t wait for the coach to tell him what he’s going to do. Shai comes to practice and says ‘I want right-arm off-spinner’, ‘I want left-arm off-spin because they are going to open with this and I want a left-arm bowler in this particular area’,” said Pothas.
“But he’s got his practice planned at. As part of coaching staff, we know our players. So, we have that conversation before we get to training. So, I have a particular setup at training to accommodate Shai and what he needs. That happens with a lot of the guys but some guys were at a much lower level than that, where they expect you to tell them what they need to do. And slowly but surely, we’re trying to drive that education into them,” he said.
“They’ve got to take that ownership of their game and we’ll help them, because it’s a very challenging environment and in order for us to prepare them to play international cricket, we have to challenge the player. But the player has to know that we’re very supportive of him too, because when you’re challenged heavy, you’re going to make errors, you’re going to feel uncomfortable, but you need to know that the coaching staff supports you too,” he added.
