By: Express News ServiceUpdated: October 2, 2025 09:49 AM IST 4 min readShubman Gill recently revealed the advice he received from Sachin Tendulkar ahead of a blockbuster England tour. (AP/File)India’s Test captain Shubman Gill had starred in the Test series in England, amassing 754 runs in five Tests at an average of 75.40 with four hundreds. He has now revealed that he had spoken to Australia’s Steve Smith and Sachin Tendulkar just before he left for that tour to pick up trade secrets to do well in England.“There was pressure of not doing well outside India. But I was feeling very confident in terms of my practice, mentally, and what positions I was getting into,” Gill told Hotstar.When the host asked him if he took counsel from someone in particular, Gill revealed the two cricketers he consulted on how to play in England.“I spoke to Sachin Sir and also took the (phone) number from Matthew Wade (who played with Gill in the IPL team) and spoke to Steve Smith. Both said the same thing: defend straight and score square.”That advice has proved to be simple and effective. If there was one issue in Shubman’s batting in the past, it was his slow weight transfer onto the front foot. Quality seamers like James Anderson, Tim Southee, Kylie Jamieson, Matt Henry, Mohammad Shami (in IPL), Scott Boland and others have all dismissed him with a good-length nipbacker that would either trap him lbw or get him bowled. He wouldn’t get a proper stride out and if he did, he would be late in getting there.Sachin Tendulkar had told The Indian Express just before the first Test about what Gill needs to do to tackle that front-foot issue.“80% of the time or even more, most batters are dismissed on that front foot,” Tendulkar told this newspaper. “Back foot, unless it’s an obvious weakness, is less. The key to solving this is to focus a lot on getting on the front foot, having that nice stride on the front foot and defending well. Driving is only an extension of that. If he [Shubman] can keep it straight and do that, it will help him.Story continues below this ad“When the length is closer to you, then the hands automatically are going to go. But his challenge is not to let the hands go when the length is not there to be driven … To start with, he has to play in the V, just like our coaches used to tell us. As that would help him to also leave the balls [not just deal with nipbackers] because when focusing on playing in the V, your eyeline and your body setup is different. So, I would like him initially to stay side on and move forward if the ball is pitched up,” Tendulkar had told this newspaper.Gill’s reluctance to get on to that front foot stems from his childhood, in his developmental years of playing cricket. His game had been built on cement tracks as a kid where he would either stand tall at crease or even push back a touch to punch balls on the rise. In case he moved forward it was never a stride but a short step. If the ball was fuller, he would just let his hands go through the line. It had become such a strength of his, that if he changed that particular aspect, it might upset his balance and poise. But the good Test seamers were undoubtedly troubling him.Here is where Tendulkar and Steve Smith’s advice has helped him star in that England series. The effort to get forward more than before was noticeable. All elements of Tendulkar’s advice were visible: the side-on, defending in the ‘V’, the positive front-foot movement, and the hands that didn’t betray. Combining Tendulkar and Smith’s suggestions, and a lot of work from him in the training before and during the series, Gill made a glorious start as a batsman in his first Test series as a captain.Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd