Followers of the game outside Mumbai first came across the name when he was just 14. Playing for Rizvi Springfield in the Harris Shield schools’ tournament, he scored 546 against St Francis D’Assisi. Once upon a time, that would make him the ‘next Sunil Gavaskar’. In 2013, when he hit that 546, Shaw became the ‘next Sachin Tendulkar’.

A performance like that does earmark one for the future, for great things, and it was no different for Shaw. There was the usual period of transition up from schools’ level, but they did come on cue, which doesn’t always happen for teenaged prodigies.

“My strength is to play aggressively, I love playing attacking shots,” he says. And that’s not only reserved for the IPL or limited-overs cricket. He has found a way to make it work for him in longer-format cricket too, as the South Africa and West Indies ‘A’ cricketers found out recently.

In an interview with Mumbai Mirror recently, Gavaskar said of Shaw, “I think he should be on the selection committee’s radar. He could be on the flight to Australia.” It’s happened sooner than that, as have most things for Shaw so far.

Virat Kohli led India to Under-19 World Cup glory in 2008 and was picked in the Indian team the same year. He made his debut that year too. Shaw was India’s captain when they won the Under-19 World Cup in 2018 and has now been selected in the Indian Test team for the last two games in England. Maybe he won’t make his debut straightaway, but it won’t be long, that’s pretty certain. Perhaps by the end of 2018 itself.