It isn’t easy being Prithvi Shaw right now. The Mumbai wunderkind’s disappointing run with the bat has intensified talk of excluding him from the first Australia-India Test.

Shaw, one of the prime contenders to take on the opening role alongside Mayank Agarwal for the Adelaide day-night match, has been struggling for runs of late. In four innings in Australia between the two practice games, his numbers read 0, 19, 40 and 3, having not spent more than 31 balls in the middle in a single outing.

The woeful run follows an underwhelming performance in  IPL 2020 for Delhi Capitals: his tally of 228 runs doesn’t quite reveal his struggles in the second half of the tournament, where he totalled just 40 runs in his last seven innings, including three ducks.

Given his rather unconventional batting style, Shaw’s technique has always been scrutinised, but the rapid decline in form has escalated criticism of his off-side wafts, a sizeable bat-pad gap and a problematic head position.

With Shaw’s lack of runs extending across weeks now, the talk surrounding him has gone beyond the technique, with questions now being raised about his temperament, attitude and even fitness.

The Australia tour was supposed to be a full circle for Shaw, who had to make a premature return from Down Under in 2018/19 after an ankle injury laid him low. The Under-19 World Cup winner has, so far, scored a century and two fifties in four Tests, and averages 55.40 in first-class cricket.

With less than a week to go for the first Test, Twitter was abuzz with comments over Shaw’s struggles, soon after his dismissal in the second innings of the India v Australia A practice game.

https://twitter.com/idliwadachutney/status/1337609587017445378

With Shaw struggling, Shubman Gill, another young contender, has to come out as a popular choice to be slotted alongside Agarwal for the Tests. Gill, Shaw’s opening partner in the warm-up games, seems to have shrugged off a scratchy start to the tour by notching up a couple of notable scores. His numbers so far read: 0, 29, 43, 65.

The criticism directed towards Shaw wasn’t all negative. Some felt that Shaw had enough time to fix his game and return stronger, with a stint in domestic cricket expected to revitalise his game.

https://twitter.com/Sudarshana1000/status/1337619483280621569