‘Shaw has bigger things in store’
MUMBAI: It was a moment of pride for the Mumbai cricket fraternity when Indian U-19 team skipper Prithvi Shaw lifted the ICC U-19 World Cup trophy on Saturday.
“I am impressed with Prithvi. He is very mature for his age. Shubman Gill also looks very good. Prithvi, Shubman and Na garkot ia re ready for the IndiaAte am ,” said former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar.
Pravin Amre, head of talent hunt at Delhi Daredevils, said Shaw had already proved his batting credentials with four firstclass 100 sin his first five matches.
“As a player, he had proved himself but there was a question mark over his leadership qualities. I’m happy with the way he led the team and also performed with the bat ,” said Am re, who had suggested Shaw’s name to the Daredevils during IPL auction.
However, two years back, Shaw was left out of the Mumbai U-19 team. He took it as a challenge, worked on his game, and has not looked back since.
“He was not in the Mumbai U-19 team selected for the Dhruv Pan dove Trophy. That, I feel, was the turning point, as he smashed three straight hundreds in the selection tournament and forced hiswayintotheU-19teamforthe rest of the season,” said Shaw’s school cricket in-charge, Raju Pathak, who has seen the player develop at the Rizvi Springfield High School, where he joined in third standard.
In the intensely competitive junior cricket scene in Mumbai, Shaw was just another promising talent till he smashed the interschool record of highest individual score with an innings of 546 against St Francis D’Assisi in 2014.“That made everyone sit up and take notice,” added Pathak.
Guru G up te, the Mumbai junior selector when Shaw played age-group tourneys, said, “The first time I saw him at the ELF Cup U -12 event, he had wonderful class. We promoted him to the U -14 side. When he was 16, we promoted him to the U -19 side .”