India is a cricketing country that has always possessed immense talent in the batting department. Every now and then, a batsman surfaces and grabs the limelight. The latest to catch the attention is Prithvi Shaw. The teenager from Mumbai has forced one and all to look at him due to his eye-catching batting style.
At the age of just 18, Prithvi Shaw was picked to play at the highest level. The right-hander made an immediate impact. Making his debut in the first Test against Windies in Rajkot, he was unflustered by the pressure of the longest format. He came out all guns blazing and didn’t seem as if he was representing the nation for the first time.
Shaw played his natural game and raced away to a hundred off just 99 balls. He ended up scoring 134 runs in the innings that aided India to get to a mammoth score. For his brilliant performance, he was adjudged the Man of the Match.
It didn’t just stop there as he continued in the 2nd Test where he had left off in Rajkot. In the Hyderabad Test, the 18-year-old once again flashed his way to 70 in the first innings. Then, he scored an unbeaten 33 in the second innings and also hit the winning runs in India’s pursuit of 72 to win.
A dream start
Having scored 237 runs in the first 2 Tests and winning a Man of the Match in the first Test and also the Man of the Series in the first Test series, does a start get any better? It was the kind of beginning every young and aspiring cricketer dreams of. Even though it’s just the beginning and there’s plenty to do still, yet the batsman has shown that he’s there to stay.
Prithvi Shaw had the flare, the confidence to strike the ball in his usual demeanor right from the beginning. The punch off the back foot towards covers to get his first runs in Test cricket shows you what talent the teenager possesses.
Comparisons with the greats
A talented guy rises amongst the ranks and so do with him the comparisons. The style in which Prithvi Shaw bats have reminded the fans of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Both hail from Mumbai, Shaw has a technique that looks similar to Sachin’s and both made early starts to their careers.
Sachin had scored centuries on his Ranji, Duleep and Irani Trophy debuts. Shaw did the same in Ranji and Duleep Trophy debuts but he couldn’t in Irani Trophy. But he did it one better by notching up the ton on Test debut.
Some believe he looks similar to Virender Sehwag due to the flamboyance in batting. When Sehwag made his debut, he was also deemed to be similar in style with Sachin Tendulkar. While the comparisons are imminent, the youngster has a steep mountain to climb to reach anywhere close to where the 2 legends reached in their careers.
Here are 10 things you might not know about Prithvi Shaw
- Prithvi had unfortunately lost his mother at a young age of 4.
- Shaw played an innings of 546 runs off 330 balls in a 2013-14 Harris Shield match for the Rizvi Springfield team. At that time, the score was the highest in all of Indian school cricket, presently the score is 4th highest.
- He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Mumbai in the semi-final against Tamil Nadu and scored a second-innings century that led his team to victory.
- In 2018, he was the captain of India Under-19 in the final where they beat Australia by 8 wickets to win their fourth Under-19 World Cup.
- Shaw is the highest scoring Indian captain in the Under-19 World Cups. In 2018, he scored 261 runs in 6 matches which are the most by an Indian captain in a single tournament.
- On 23 April 2018, Shaw became the youngest player to open the batting in the Indian Premier League history at the age of 18 and 165 days when he played for Delhi Daredevils.
- On 27 April 2018, Prithvi Shaw notched up his first IPL fifty against the Kolkata Knight Riders and went on to become the joint youngest player to score an IPL fifty along with Sanju Samson (in 18 years and 169 days).
- Shaw is the youngest batsman to make a Test century on debut for India (18 years and 329 days).
- He is the second-youngest Indian after Tendulkar to make a Test century on debut.
- He is the sixth Indian to win the Man of the Match award on Test debut.
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