Ahead of the IPL 2023 final, Karsan Ghavri, former India fast bowler and childhood coach of Shubman Gill, has drawn comparisons between his ward and Prithvi Shaw and has questioned Shaw’s work ethic.

Shubman Gill has been having a dream season with the bat: he has already scored 851 runs at a strike rate in excess of 150 and has one match left to expand that tally. Shaw, on the other hand, had statistically his worst season this year, managing a mere 106 runs in eight matches at an average under 15 and a strike rate under 125.

Both Gill and Shaw were part of the Under-19 World Cup-winning Indian side in 2018. In fact, Shaw was the captain of the team. While Gill was also highly rated and was always touted to become a superstar, Shaw was viewed more as a child prodigy given his record-breaking streaks in Mumbai cricket over several years.

However, the career trajectories of Gill and Shaw have gone in different directions lately. This has prompted a lot of people to draw comparisons between the two young batters. Ghavri, who was one of the first coaches of Gill, has joined the bandwagon.

Speaking to the Indian Express, Ghavri said that the reason why Gill is succeeding and Shaw isn’t is that the latter hasn’t worked hard enough on his game. “They were in the same team that won the U-19 World Cup in 2018, right? Today where is Prithvi Shaw and where is Shubman Gill? They are in two different categories,” Ghavri said.

“Shaw thinks he is a star and nobody can touch him. But he needs to understand that at the international level, irrespective of whether you are playing T20, 50 over or the Test match or even the Ranji Trophy, it takes only one delivery to get you out.

“You require discipline and a good temperament. You need to constantly work on yourself. You are required to occupy the crease, and if you do that, you are bound to get more runs,” Ghavri said.

However, not everything that Ghavri said about Shaw was all doom and gloom. He added that Shaw still has time as he is young and that if he works on his deficiencies he can still make it big like he was supposed to.

“They are of the same age. Nothing has been lost yet. Gill has worked on his flaws, while Shaw hasn’t. He still can. He needs to work hard; otherwise, there is no point having so much potential,” he said.

Before the start of IPL 2023, Ricky Ponting, Delhi Capitals’ head coach had publicly claimed that Shaw could have his biggest season this year. However, midway through the tournament, they were forced to drop Shaw due to almost non-existent returns.

“I actually came out and publicly said on record that he might be our standout player throughout the tournament, but that hasn’t worked out,”  Ponting said after Shaw was dropped.

He did make a comeback towards the end of the season and scored a fifty against Punjab in Dharamshala. Shaw was recently recalled into the Indian T20 side just before the IPL but didn’t get to play a game. This IPL season might have just taken that spot away from him once again.

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