It makes little sense to not have one of the most destructive opening batters in the domestic circuit around the ODI squad less than two years out from a home World Cup, writes Rohit Sankar.
Prithvi Shaw has a List A strike-rate of 124.98. It is higher than the career T20 strike-rate of Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson and Mohammad Hafeez to name a few. As unfair a comparison as that is – the other three started their T20 careers at a time strike-rates weren’t a major metric yet – Shaw’s superior scoring rate in a format that has more than double the number of batting overs does the talking.
It’s not something he is incapable of translating into international cricket either as he showed in Colombo in the first ODI of India’s second-string side’s tour of Sri Lanka in July. Opening alongside Dhawan, Shaw made a mockery of a target of 263 with his 24-ball 43 that drove India to 58 in 5.3 overs. Despite playing his part in the game for just 33 balls, Shaw was awarded the Player of the Match award, and it didn’t feel out of place at all.
If ever there was a glimpse into India’s possible future in this format, that right there was it. For a long time, India have thrived on wicket preservation at the top. Their top-order batters have doubled as finishers in the post-peak-Dhoni era, building a platform and then capitalising on it themselves. It’s a formula that has made them a fearsome side in bilateral contests, but it has seen India fall on the wrong side multiple times in big events.
Teams around the world have adopted a more aggressive style of batting and with a home ODI World Cup around the corner, it’s a gameplan that could be a huge factor on the flat batting wickets in India. Shaw’s potential upside cannot be ignored any longer.
It’s not all thumping and whacking at the top for Shaw. He has a List A average of 56.48 to go with that mind-boggling strike-rate and also holds two records that are unlikely to be broken anytime soon in the Indian domestic cricket List A tournament. Shaw is the highest run-scorer in a season of the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 827 runs in the 2020/21 season, maintaining an average of 165.4 and a strike-rate of 138.3. During the season, he also slammed the highest individual score in the competition’s history: a 152-ball 227.
More than the numbers, it’s remarkable how a 21-year-old got out of one of the lowest points of his career to pull together a season of that magnitude, a testimony, if anything, to his temperament as an individual and cricketer.
After a poor IPL season in 2020 where he was benched in the second half of the competition, Shaw went to Australia for the Test series low on confidence, but he didn’t just have a poor time in Australia. His technique was severely exposed, and his shot selection gained media attention with former cricketers and critics writing off the 21-year-old.
To go from that to a spectacular Vijay Hazare season and an impressive first half of the IPL in early 2021 just months afterward is a turnaround few expected. But it didn’t come out of the blue either. Working with Pravin Amre, Shaw sorted out issues with his bat swing and footwork and challenged himself to bat for longer periods of time in the Vijay Hazare. The result was a record-breaking season where he not only batted for longer and made huge runs but also kept his strike-rate at T20 levels.
That form carried into the IPL where he impressed with his stroke-making in the powerplay and afterward, the result of which is his retention by Delhi ahead of the mega auction, a sign as good as any about their trust in the now 22-year-old.
Shaw missing the Vijay Hazare season this time around isn’t ideal for him considering how Ruturaj Gaikwad has shot up the pecking order with a stunning season where he threatened Shaw’s record for a while before his team got knocked out. But while India’s reserve pool of openers remains huge, Shaw stands apart. He brings additional perks to the table few others in world cricket have with his career strike-rate.
Even with all eyes on Gaikwad now ahead of the South Africa tour ODI selection, Shaw’s returns in List A cricket haven’t gone missing among the new-age T20 crowd and it’s a hype train India would do well to jump on right now. His incredible potential in this format should not go missing when it could just be the edge India need at home in a World Cup where the power battle between bats is expected to be the main theme.
