Just about every Indian cricket fan, expert, and even the ones outside the country seem to be mighty worried about talented Mumbai cricketer Prithvi Shaw. The 25-year-old, U-19 World Cup winning captain came under the limelight fairly early in his life, as a school cricketer, and lived up to the potential in the age group cricket as well.
Prithvi Shaw’s Vinod Kambli-like Career
After leading the country to the U-19 WC triumph in the 2018, he was touted as the next Sachin Tendulkar, and gave a glimpse of it in his debut Test as well, vs West Indies, where he smashed his maiden ton..but that was it. Now, his string of controversies has led all to believe, that he could be the next Vinod Kambli.
| Prithvi Shaw | T – 5, R – 339, HS – 134, AVG – 42.37, 100 – 1, 50 – 2 |
| Vinod Kambli | T – 17, R – 1084, HS – 227, AVG – 54.20, 100 – 4, 50 – 3 |
Just like Prithvi, Vinod Kambli had an exceptional start to his international career, but soon faded away into obscurity. Life off the field started taking a toll on the field, and his career was never the same. He was controversies favorite child, and did not mend his ways. That was the end of Kambli the cricketer.
Prithvi – Controversies New Favorite Child?
Cut to Prithvi, right in 2018 after his debut series, it was allegedly reported that he was sent back from the IND vs AUS tour, for “losing focus”. He had injured his ankle too, during that time and was ruled out. In July 2019, a few months later, Prithvi Shaw faced a doping violation and the BCCI imposed an eight-month ban.
Then an incident involving a fake injury had surfaced, where in Sydney, Ajinkya Rahane figured his shenanigans and ordered him to get back to the field. Another time, while going through a bad patch in the IPL for DC, he reportedly declined to bat in the nets, despite being asked by Ricky Ponting. Then in IPL 2022 pre-camp, he went on to fail the much-required yo-yo test too.
If that is not enough, there were alleged molestation accusations by social media influencer Sapna Gill.
Ignored at IPL Auction, Has Point to Prove
All that was enough to have a significant impact on his performances, that saw him getting dropped from the Mumbai Ranji team, not getting bagged by any team at the IPL Auction, and a long-standing India snub. That made his ex-coach at DC, Pravin Amre to comment, that the youngster might have failed to manage the fame and glamour.
“Three years back, I gave him Vinod Kambli’s example. I’ve seen Kambli’s downfall from close quarters. It’s not easy to teach certain things to this generation. Thanks to being retained by DC, Prithvi must have earned ₹30-40 crore by the time he was 23. Will even an IIM graduate get that type of money? When you earn so much at such a young age, you tend to lose focus. It’s important that you know how to manage money, have good friends and prioritise cricket,” Amre had told Times of India in an interview.
While the road for Prithvi looks blurry, it will be through a renewed mindset, help from all quarters, and improved performances, that he can hope to reverse the damage he’s done to his career. For now, he is playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Mumbai, and has been far from impressive. In the 5 matches, he has returned with scores of 33, 0, 23, 40 and 0. So, a long way to go for him.
