After skyrocketing rise came a huge fall.. and that too in a manner where it brought him down to the ground.. such misfortune is rarely seen..
Eight months ago this year, Delhi Capitals saw Prithvi Shaw playing for them in the month of April. But now this year is going and the new year is coming with the new edition of IPL. And in these eight months Shaw has seen the whole world change.
No one was able to buy Prithvi Shaw this time in the mega auction for the new IPL. The reason for this was not that Prithvi had quoted a high price for himself. The reason was that no one quoted a price for him.
It is very strange for such a day to come. Especially for that cricketer who was considered the wonder boy of Indian cricket till some time back.
Just two weeks ago in November, Rishabh Pant became the most expensive player in IPL history when he was bought by Lucknow Supergiants for Rs 27 crore (£2.54m) in the mega auction held in Saudi Arabia.
Yes, this made news and so did another – Pant’s Delhi Capitals teammate Prithvi Shaw went unsold. Everyone was surprised and some were saddened.
Among the bidders in this auction were legends like Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting, who were closely associated with Shaw during his many years with Delhi Capitals. There was also Rahul Dravid, who was the coach of the team when India won the Under-19 World Cup in 2018 under the leadership of Prithvi Shaw.
This time his indifference towards Shaw was also clearly visible. Perhaps no buyer came for Shaw in IPL this time.
Look at this irony. Shaw’s Delhi Capital teammate Rishabh Pant’s career seemed to be in danger till nine months before the start of the 2024 IPL season this year.
Pant had a terrible car accident in December 2022 in which he suffered fatal injuries. But after this, with the help of his strong will and determination, Pant came back from darkness to light by making discipline and dedication his way. This is more of a record than a miracle when a batsman made a comeback from a point in his career where his career was at a dead end.
One of the last memories of watching Shaw play is the match of April 7, 2024 when Delhi Capitals’ Shaw was clean bowled by Mumbai Indians’ Bumrah in an IPL match between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai eight months ago.
This year Prithvi Shaw also bowled in a game against Mumbai – but his continued poor form led to his ouster from the team.
Pant, who recovered from injury, attacked the challenges of IPL 2024 this year with his bat and his excellent performance got him back to international cricket. Pant was also in the T20 World Cup-winning Team India and he again showed his batting prowess by dominating the domestic season. His batting in the domestic Duleep Trophy impressed everyone. Then he made a sensational comeback in Test cricket. Then his brilliant century against Bangladesh became a proof of his Bhimaseni presence on the field.
On the other hand, Prithvi Shaw, the hero of the Under 19 World Cup winning team, kept struggling with his poor form. Some poor performances in the IPL were already making him sad, apart from that, Prithvi Shaw, who was under pressure, was facing one crisis after another.
This year’s IPL did not forgive his poor form and Prithvi could not find his place in the playing eleven in the middle of the season. In the current domestic season, Prithvi’s bat consistently scored low and he was also dropped from the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team. And now the IPL mega auction has completely rejected Prithvi’s sky-high stature. Perhaps his career has reached its end much before time.
Such a decline is not small for this 25-year-old player. Prithvi Shaw is the same player who was seen as the ‘next big man’ of Indian cricket till some time ago.
Eleven years ago, in the last two months of the year 2013, the country heard a new name. In November 2013, a 14-year-old cricketer suddenly came into the limelight. He single-handedly scored a mountain of 546 runs for Rizvi Springfield in a prestigious school cricket tournament called Harris Shield. Till that year, this was the highest score in the big world of small cricket.
Look at the timing, this was the same year when India’s most famous cricketer Sachin Tendulkar retired and just a week after that Prithvi Shaw started being compared to the legendary Tendulkar.
Twenty-four years ago, something similar had happened and it happened with another Prithvi Shaw. In 1987, Tendulkar and his cricketer friend Vinod Kambli had made a partnership of 664 runs in a school match which created a world record. Prithvi Shaw was one of the fans of such a talented player from all over the world.
Short in height and a bit fat – opener Shaw did not have the technical skills that Tendulkar had from the beginning. But Shaw had the skill of timing and he used to attack the bowlers in such a way that the selectors used to become his fans instantly.
Shaw also got a place in first class cricket like Tendulkar and he scored a century on his debut in the domestic Duleep Trophy and Ranji Trophy and then the comparison of Shaw with Tendulkar became even stronger.
Seven years later, during the last months of 2018, Shaw was included in the Indian Test cricket squad against West Indies. At that time, the audience saw how Shaw hit rifle-shot drives, cut and how he hit pull strokes to score 134 runs in 154 balls. This wonder boy of Indian cricket was only 19 years old at that time. In Team India, only Tendulkar had scored his first Test century at a young age.
Shaw was declared the successor of two great cricketers at once. After Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, Indian cricket expected him to reach great heights. But perhaps this was the time when suddenly the rising earth in the sky was under evil eye.
Those with evil eyes perhaps even sighed. Since then, Shaw is seen on a slippery slope. Forget about being able to balance, he is not even able to stand. Don’t know what happened suddenly?
