'You are my new hero': Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar to Lakshya Sen

A starstruck Lakshya Sen couldnt believe his eyes when the legendary Sunil Gavaskar dropped in at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy PPBA in Bengaluru to meet him and the youngstersThe 73yearold Gavaskar a member of the 1983 World Cupwinning cricket team paid a visit to the academy during a regular trip to the city on ThursdayHe 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 cofounder director and chief coach of the PPBA told PTIGavaskar later posted a picture with Lakshya Sen on Instagram and captioned it My new badminton hero Lakshya Sen after the one and only Prakash PadukoneThe legendary cricketer had hailed Padukone several times while doing cricket commentary over the years saying he is one of Indias greatest sportspersonsAlso Read Lakshya Sen impressive run ends in quarterfinalsSen who has been one of Indias most prolific sportspersons in 2022 said he was too star stuck to reactIt feels good to hear such things from such big personalities Honestly I was too star stuck to react Sen told PTIThe 21yearold from Almora won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the India Open Super 500 He was also a member of the historic Thomas Cup winHe also won silver at the All England Championships and is also the winner of the 2021 World Championships bronze medalGavaskar 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 saidI can relate to it now essentially after the Thomas Cup win because back then they were the underdogs and in Thomas Cup it was usIndia had claimed their firstever Thomas Cup beating Indonesia 30 in the final at Bangkok in May last yearAlso Read Anup Sridhar to assist Sen in preOlympic seasonAsked what did Gavaskar discuss with the budding shuttlers Vimal said He also gave some tips to the youngsters asking them to analyse what went right in a day to get the best out of trainingGavaskar and Prakash are two selftaught heroes of Indian sport so coming from him means a lotGavaskars love for badminton is wellknown He was the coowner of Mumbai Masters a franchise which made the lastfour of the inaugural Indian Badminton League IBLWhenever the former cricketer is in Mumbai and is able to spare time from his busy commentary schedule he makes it a point to play a few games of badmintonThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever