21 April,2009 08:43 AM IST | | SKS
The thing which strikes you about JP's batting is his technique. His dad revealed it was not always that way.
"When he was playing in the under-12 age group, he used to play a lot of aerial shots. He used to get away with it because the kids could not stop it or hold on to the catch. He got good scores until he was 13.u00a0
"But when he played in the U-15 category, all of a sudden, the bowlers were very good and catches were taken. So, his scores weren't that good. He became so disappointed that he wanted to give up cricket.
"It was the end of the season and I told him to put away his kit and not to think about cricket. He played football for four months.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
"I phoned up a friend of mine, Faiek Davids, who used to be JP's coach when he was younger but he was not available. I needed someone urgently and he gave me some numbers. But even they were not available."
"I called Faiek again and he told me to do things myself. I told him I was not a cricket coach but he insisted and told me to give JP throw downs and have fielding practice.
"We came up with a strategy and it was very simple. It was to make him play more straight. It did not come quickly but the training taught him how to think, how to be disciplined and not to play rash shots. Since, he was 13, he has applied that method.
"It taught him which ball to play and which ball not to play. It started working and then he started scoring hundreds again."
