Shaw set to take his big bow for India
Teenage batting prospect Prithvi Shaw will make his debut for India in the opening Test of the two-match series against the West Indies, starting in Rajkot today.
In a departure from previous team announcements, India named a 12-man squad one day ahead of the match and while 18-year-old righthander Shaw made the cut, fellow rookie opener Mayank Agarwal, 27, missed out.
Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan opened for India at the start of the recent five-Test series in England but both players have been overlooked following modest performances during the 4-1 defeat.
Shaw has played only 14 first-class games, scoring 1,418 runs at an average of 56.71, and will open alongside Lokesh Rahul, who was the third opener in England and survived the axe after posting a breezy 149 in the final Test at the Oval.
“We have a change at the top of the order and we will give these guys enough space and enough chances to feel comfortable at that position,” India captain Virat Kohli told reporters.
“We want them to be confident about what they are doing. Apart from the top of the order getting cemented, I don’t think that with these two Test matches there’s a lot that we are looking at. The rest of the things feel quite settled.
“At the top of the order these guys are new, so they will take a bit of time to get into it. They definitely have the skill-set, they are supremely talented and what we have seen of them is very, very exciting.”