Prithvi Shaw is not the first young Mumbai batter to get heads turning in cricket, and he most certainly won't be the last. A precocious child prodigy, Shaw created a bit of a stir in the Indian cricketing fraternity with a manic display of batting in Mumbai's Harris Shield as a mere 14-year-old - an unprecedented 546, the highest score in any competitive cricket at the time in more than a century until surpassed by one Pranav Dhanawade in 2016. Since then, he was on the radar of several talent scouts in the Indian cricketing circuit. He didn’t disappoint the expectant aficionados of the game either, scoring truckloads of runs in school cricket and forcing his way up the ranks of junior cricket with the sheer weight of runs. Having lost his mother at a young age, Shaw's responsibility fell entirely on his father, Pankaj Shaw, who gave up his business and moved to Mumbai from Virar in 2006 in a bid to get Shaw closer to the MIG ground in Bandra. In 2010, retired Mumbai spinner Nilesh Kulkarni spotted Shaw and got his sports management company to sign him up for INR 300,000 per annum. The off-field battles hardened young Shaw at a tender age and he clearly carried the latent mental toughness into cricket which translated into truckloads of runs at the first-class level. His stellar stroke-play, formidable footwork, and immaculate consistency made him play A division cricket at a tender age of 8-9. Unlike many Indian cricketers, he is decent against short-pitched bowling, though the quicker pitches in Australia have tested him more - particularly given his side-on stance which gives him a fraction of a second less to swivel into pull or hook shots. He is a bottom-handed player which allows him to be a fearsome cutter and effective puller, in general giving him lightning bat-speed through the line of the ball. That success, however, was short lived. On India’s fabled 2020-21 tour to Australia, Shaw’s technical faults were exposed and he was dropped after scores of 0 and 4 in the first Test with the team favouring another flamboyant youngster - Shubman Gill. Shaw returned to national colours for a limited-overs series against Sri Lanka but he failed to impress. Coupled with injuries and issues with fitness, Shaw struggled to make it back into the national side in both red and white ball cricket. IPL through the years Prithvi Shaw for long has been touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket and judging by that Delhi bought him at an excellent price of 1.2 Crores. Initially, he wasn't getting an opportunity to be a part of the playing eleven but the poor form of Gautam Gambhir opened the door for Shaw. He made most of his opportunities and got Delhi off to brisk starts on most occasions. Shaw started off well with a 10-ball 22 and a flurry of aggressive innings over the course of the season and ended up cementing his spot in the side, running riot in the powerplay, before Rishabh Pant could cut loose at the death. His best IPL came in 2021 when he scored 479 runs at an average of 31.93 while striking at 159.13 in 15 games. The following year saw him struggle for consistency and fitness again and he had poor returns.
