Prithvi Shaw, who has moved to Maharashtra ahead of the new domestic season, believes he can regain the lost ground. The 25-year-old, who scored a century on his Test debut in 2018, has seen his career nose-dive because of disciplinary and fitness issues and was dropped by his home state unit Mumbai. Having shifted to Maharashtra, he began the season on a resounding note scoring 111 against Chhattisgarh in the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament here on Tuesday.
Beginning their first innings after Chhattisgarh made 252, Shaw was the standout performer for Maharashtra which folded for 217. Since being dropped from the Indian team, Shaw has lost ground in the national scheme of things. Apart from finding no takers in the Indian Premier League, Shaw even failed to make the West Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy. No longer part of the targeted pool list, Shaw is now in a place where he has to start from scratch.
“Don’t want anyone’s sympathy,” Shaw said firmly, underlining his intent to let his bat do the talking. At Guru Nanak College Ground in Chennai, he delivered a fluent hundred, anchoring Maharashtra’s innings against Chhasttisgarh, even as wickets tumbled around him.
Shaw admitted that he was ready to climb from the bottom if that’s what it takes.
“I don’t mind coming from scratch again because I’ve seen many ups and downs in my life. And I’ve been up there, I’ve been down there, I’ve come back up. So, everything is possible, I feel. I’m kind of a very confident guy, confident in myself, my work ethics. I feel, I hope that this season will go really well for me as well as for my team.”
After a period marked by missed India call-ups, going unsold in the IPL, and being dropped from Mumbai’s Ranji squad, Shaw’s move to Maharashtra is both a reset and a statement.
He said his approach is to stick to what worked for him in the past.
“I don’t want to change anything. I just went back to basics, doing things that I used to do in Under-19 days, which got me to the Indian team, just doing all the stuff back again, you know, practicing more, gym, running. It’s small things, obviously, it’s not that big because I’ve been doing these things since the age of 12 and 13.”
