You are my new hero: Gavaskar tells Lakshya Sen

A star-struck Lakshya Sen couldn’t imagine his eyes when the legendary Sunil Gavaskar dropped in on the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA) in Bengaluru to satisfy him and the kids.

The 73-year-old Gavaskar, a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning cricket staff, paid a go to to the academy throughout a daily journey to town on Thursday.

“He had a meeting in Bengaluru and decided to meet the young aspiring kids of the academy. Badminton and cricket are two of his favourite sports. He was here with us for about an hour,” Vimal Kumar, co-founder, director and chief coach of the PPBA, informed PTI.

Gavaskar later posted an image with Lakshya Sen on Instagram and captioned it: “My new badminton hero Lakshya Sen, after the one and only Prakash Padukone.” The legendary cricketer had hailed Padukone a number of instances whereas doing cricket commentary through the years, saying he’s one in every of India’s biggest sportspersons.

Sen, who has been one in every of India’s most prolific sportspersons in 2022, stated he was too star caught to react.

“It feels good to hear such things from such big personalities. Honestly, I was too star stuck to react,” Sen informed PTI.

The 21-year-old from Almora gained gold on the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the India Open Super 500. He was additionally a member of the historic Thomas Cup win. He additionally gained silver on the All England Championships and can also be the winner of the 2021 World Championships bronze medal.

“Gavaskar sir spoke about the Thomas Cup win. I have heard so much about him from my parents and all the seniors. Also when I watched the movie ’83’, I got to know what went behind that epic win,” he stated.

“I can relate to it now, essentially after the Thomas Cup win because back then they were the underdogs and in Thomas Cup, it was us.” India had claimed their first-ever Thomas Cup, beating Indonesia 3-0 within the ultimate at Bangkok in May final yr.

Asked what did Gavaskar focus on with the budding shuttlers, Vimal stated, “He additionally gave some tricks to the kids, asking them to analyse what went proper in a day to get the most effective out of coaching.

“Gavaskar and Prakash are two self-taught heroes of Indian sport, so coming from him means a lot.” Gavaskar’s love for badminton is well-known. He was the co-owner of Mumbai Masters, a franchise which made the last-four of the inaugural Indian Badminton League (IBL).

Whenever the previous cricketer is in Mumbai, and is ready to spare time from his busy commentary schedule, he makes it some extent to play a number of video games of badminton.