Former India pacer Ashish Nehra has said that young opener Prithvi Shaw should not have been benched after his failure in Adelaide Test against Australia in December 2020.
Nehra reckoned that the decision to drop Shaw on the basis of his performance in one Test was harsh, adding that he was not a player with experience of 30-40 Test matches under his belt.
Notably, Shaw got our for a duck in the first innings of th pink-ball Test, in the second innings he managed 4 runs. Shaw was castled by Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins on the two occasions and his technique came under immediate scrutiny.
“As far as technique is concerned, for any player it is difficult to adjust. Even during the Adelaide Test, he wasn’t a player who had a lot of experience or played 30-40 Test matches. We were talking about a youngster. To drop him on the basis of one Test match was tough,” Nehra told Cricbuzz.
“It’s one thing that India went on to win the series but even then, I felt that he shouldn’t have been benched after one Test match. Even during last year’s IPL, I felt he shouldn’t have been dropped. He played a few good innings but couldn’t score runs,” Nehra added.
Prithvi Shaw was benched for the next 3 matches of the series and dropped altogether from the squad later. He wasn’t picked in the Test, ODI ad T20I series against England this year despite his stellar performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy where he amassed 827 runs in 8 matches. The 21-year-old continued his good form in the now-postponed IPL 2021 as well. The right-hander scored, 308 runs in 8 matches. Only Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Faf du Plessis score more runs then him.
Further, Ashish Nehra also backed Shaw in T20 cricket. He said that he would prefer explosive batsmen like Shaw, Rishabh Pant, Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer ahead of a batsman like Ajinkya Rahane, who lack the flair required in the format.
“But I will always back a player who has more runs than Rahane, when you talk of T20 cricket. I’m not saying that Rahane is not a good player, but in T20 cricket you need explosive players like Shaw, Pant, Stoinis and Hetmyer ” Nehra added.
Prithvi Shaw was ignored yet again on Friday when the selectors announced squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand in England. Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are the 4 players who could open for India in the 3-month-long tour which also includes 5 Tests against England.
