After winning the ICC Under-19 World Cup on Saturday in New Zealand, Prithvi Shaw has become a household name in India. Having Already regarded as the best young batting prodigy of India at the age of 18, Now Shaw has proved his captaincy credentials and well, by joining the elite club of Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli and Unmukt Chan’s by Winning the U19 Trophy for the country!
However, the Journey was not that much smooth for Shaw. It was all about dreaming big and sacrifice everything to achieve the goal.
Apart from his father, one man, who contributed the most in Shaw incredible journey is Jwala Singh. A well known coach and cricket promoter in the Mumbai, he re-shaped Shaw and saw him and guided him through the right path, that makes him a player, he is today.
Cricket Age talked exclusively to Jwala Singh, and he narrated the journey of Indian’s most talked about young batting prodigy.
“A confused-looking, nervous boy walked up to my academy at the Air India ground in Vakola.
It was sometime in 2014. After his record 546-run feat for Rizvi Springfield in an inter-school game in 2013, Shaw hit a few more hundreds, before experiencing a sort of a free fall. The youngster would walk out at No 7 while batting for Parkophene CC in the Kanga League and hardly contribute much. The scores began to dry up.”
“He used to come to the Air India ground with his father, so I used to watch him bat many times,” recalls Singh.
“One day, his father met me. ‘What is Prithvi doing,’ I asked him. He said, ‘Sir, he isn’t able to score much. He asked me to see his son and find out why he wasn’t scoring ‘big runs’ like before. ‘Ask him to come for a fortnight, and let’s see how it works out,’ I told him.
The coach then diagnosed the problem. “I was following his performances, and found out that he was getting good starts, but wasn’t able to convert them into big scores. He used to get out in the 20 to 40 phase most of the times, rather than getting the hundreds.
It was then time to find a solution.
“Watching him bat my nets, I concluded that he was a bit too desperate to score runs, which meant that he was trying to play all his shots early in his innings. I drilled into him that it was very important to play one ball at a time, with the right reaction. It meant that I wanted him to play on the merit of the ball, and not how he wanted to hit it.
“I made a few adjustments in his technique, without making him realise what changes is going on. He was playing a little away from his body.”
There was a need to work on the struggling youngster’s mind too. “It was important to work on his mental part. There were many things running in his brain. I told him just one thing: ‘Getting success early or late in life isn’t important. What’s important is to stay successful.”
“After those sessions, I assured his father that Shaw will be back amongst big runs. “After that, he scored a lot of runs in inter-zonal games, local cricket, in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy for Mumbai, and basically, everywhere that he played.”
To work on improve his strength, Shaw underwent beach training in the monsoon season. “In 2016, I made a rule for Prithvi for our indoor sessions during the monsoons. He was allowed to play the first 20 balls, and then we set a target for him. He was supposed to get 120 in 140 balls. If he got out in the process, he had to go home and won’t get to bat again for the day. He managed to achieve his goal most of the times. During the nets that year, I asked him what his goal for the year was. He wanted to play in the Ranji Trophy. Later that year, he received a call-up for the Ranji Trophy semifinals.”
And, his first class debut was nothing less than a record-shattering saga. Making his first-class debut in the Ranji Trophy semifinals, Shaw scored a match-winning century in the second innings for Mumbai against Tamil Nadu, before making a ton on his Duleep Trophy debut in Lucknow as well.
He was that much prolific in his debut first class season itself, that people started to compare with legendary Sachin Tendulkar.
“Look, it’s obvious that whenever a young batsman starts to showcase his talent at bigger stages, people tends to compare him with the Legend. In Prithivi’s case, it came too early. But, I can say that he never tried to bat like Sachin. If there is any similarities, it comes naturally to him” Singh said.
Though, he has already achieved big, the journey has just started, with bigger challenges are awaiting for him.
“Prithvi’s real challenges starts from here. Now, he has become A Star. So, obviously the opposition will try hard to counter his game. And that’s where, Prithvi is far superior than others. He reads the game well and knows how to play according to situation” a confident Singh said.
Next few season will show the true picture : How good Prithvi Shaw is.
One thing is clear though : even if something goes wrong, he blessed with a coach like Jwala Singh, who knows his game better than anyone else!
