Prithivi Shaw – The next Sachin Tendulkar or next Virender Sehwag. These were the ovations he has received when he debuted for India in 2018 against West Indies in a red-ball cricket game. He became the youngest Indian to hit a century on his test debut at the age of 18 years and also awarded with Man of the series foe 237 runs in 4 innings against West Indies. Since his debut he has played 5 tests and scored 338 runs at an average of 42.25 which include one hundred and two half-centuries. Apart from the two test matches against West Indies Prithivi Shaw hasn't been that good even that series against New Zealand earlier this year where he has just one half-century under his name.
While in the on going series against Australia after the 53 runs lead in the first innings it was time for him to give flying start and set the momentum for the other players to score runs before set team India set massive target for Australia but he went back to pavilion without scoring any runs. Many former players have criticised his short playing abilities. Here was Prithivi Shaw wicket in the first innings when Mitchell Starc rattled his stumps –
Check out Prithivi Shaw wicket during the second innings and what's has happened during Day 2 at Adelaide –
While former Indian left-arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan has opined that Prithivi Shaw will be not playing in the series again ''Well, I think, It works in your favour when you are getting runs. It can look bad when you are getting out. It's equally difficult when someone figures it out. That's what international cricket is all about. Everyone is just waiting to figure you out, find out your weaknesses and just attack. That's what is happening with Prithvi Shaw at the moment.'
"I completely agree with you that he might be missing in this (next) Test match. I mean, the remainder of the series looks like it's going to be difficult for him to make that spot. There was some speculation that he might not be starting the series,'' Zaheer Khan added.
And in a conversation with sportstar the former Indian batsman Mohammad Azharudin reckons,
''He has enormous talent, but his game is free-flowing, and there will be days when he can rip apart opponents. But that won’t happen every day. As an opener, the basic job is to take the shine off the new ball. Even if you don’t score too many runs, it is important that you be patient and try to stay at the crease for long.”
“That way, you gain the confidence, and once you are settled, you can play your strokes. That’s how you score runs. You cannot be impatient at the highest level. I hope that somebody in the team management tells him that he needs to tighten his defence. You can’t play a similar attacking game that you played against the West Indies two years ago, because you are playing pink ball after a long time, so it is anyway challenging. So you need to focus,” Azharuddin added further.
Without having much first-class experience is an obvious reason Prithivi Shaw has been struggling with his footwork movement in international cricket. No doubt he has a talent and his gifted hand-eye coordination put him in a very different league among others. But players like Shubham Gill are set to replace him in the next test match after having a good time in a practice match.
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