Is IPL auction snub the jolt Prithvi Shaw needed to rise to his true potential?

He was the wunderkind of wunderkinds. Perhaps, the most high-profile schoolboy cricketer since Sachin Tendulkar. Yet, at 25, Prithvi Shaw is a man without a team. At least a team that matches his talent. On October 23, Mumbai dropped him from its Ranji squad for “fitness and discipline” issues before calling him back for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Then, on November 24, no IPL franchise raised a paddle even though Shaw had cut his base price to Rs 75 lakh from Rs 2 crore.

A regular starter for Mumbai across formats and the opener for Delhi Capitals, Shaw was, in many eyes, the chosen one. A hundred against the West Indies in a home Test was seen as the prophecy beginning to come true.

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But then came a string on controversies that made the internet turn on him. He went from, in the words of trolls, “from next Tendulkar to next Kambli”. What is interesting, though, is that some of Shaw’s problems seem anachronistic. In 2024, you don’t expect a player vying for a place in the Indian team to be unfit. In the age of curated public personas, you don’t expect a public spat with a social media influencer. In times when players are under a microscope, you don’t expect one of the country’s top prospects to be part of a doping scandal. Remember, Shaw was cleared of the doping charge—the BCCI was convinced he took a banned substance found in a cough syrup inadvertently—and also of the sexual assault that the influencer claimed.

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As for the excessive body fat and lack of fitness, Shaw’s latest post on Instagram is a video of him in the gym. Getting fit is a problem that is easily solvable for a young athlete. And it is not like some amount of body fat means that a player in unfit for cricket.

The unsolved problem seems to be the alleged indiscipline. There have been reports that Shaw did not listen to advice from Indian legends, and Australian great Ricky Ponting once said that, at Delhi Capitals, Shaw refused to get into the nets to bat. That was a method for Shaw; he would bat extra when he was playing well and not at all when he wasn’t. But, saying no to Ponting, was going to rub people the wrong way. When Mumbai dropped him, veteran sports journalist Ayaz Memon said he was firmly behind the selection committee because why would they intentionally want to drop a prospect like Shaw.

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That is perhaps the issue here. A lot of the Indian cricket world has invested years in this boy and it irks them to not see results. “People calling you Lara, somebody calling you Sachin, someone else calling you the next big thing,” Delhi Capitals co-owner Parth Jindal told Sports Today. “You grow up in that environment, and everyone from Mumbai cricket talking big about you. I think this is that one jolt Prithvi needed.”

That could be true. What is also true is that when you have had people flying halfway across the world to do a documentary on you as a 15-year-old, failure is bound to affect your mental health. In an interview with Cricbuzz last year, Shaw spoke about this aspect. “As a person, I just like to be in my own zone,” he said. “I've only a couple of friends, and even with them I don't share everything…. This is what's happening with this generation. You can't share your thoughts with anyone else. If you ask me personally, it's very scary. Darr lagta hai aajkal to share my thoughts. Agle din social media mein aa jaata hai (I'm scared to share my thoughts. All of it comes up on social media the next day).”

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Looking back, perhaps, this fall could help Shaw in the long run. He is only 25. Perhaps, the trolls will move on now; perhaps they have found a better story in Yashasvi Jaiswal, who comes from a similar background.

And if Greg Chappell, one of the best batters of his generation, cares enough to pen a public letter to him, then there is indeed enough stock in Shaw yet. Hopefully, someone will talk to the youngster—more as a friend than as a cricketer.