NEW DELHI: Prithvi Shaw not being picked by any of the ten Indian Premier League franchises in last month’s auction came as a surprise for many.
After being released by Delhi Capitals, Shaw was available for a base price of Rs 75 lakh but found no buyers at the two-day affair in Jeddah.
Once called as ‘wonder boy’ of Indian cricket, Shaw has seen a sharp downfall in his career graph in recent years and pundits have labelled his off-field persona as the root cause of his on-field decline.
Since not being picked at the IPL auction, many have come out in support of Shaw and former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali too joined the chorus, asking the 25-year-old to focus solely on cricket and improve his game.
“Prithvi Shaw saab, apne aap ko sudharo (improve yourself). You are just 23-24 at the moment, my son’s age. Focus on cricket.
“Doosre Vinod Kambli mat bano. I feel pain because you are a cricketer. You are from our family. Improve yourself, my son. It does not matter if you don’t get picked at the IPL auction. Believe in yourself. Get out there and perform. Hard work never goes in vain,” Basit said on his YouTube channel.
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Shaw has been going through torrid times in his cricketing career.
He was earlier dropped from the Mumbai Ranji team for being overweight and unfit but then returned for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
However, he hasn’t done anything significant so far in the T20 tournament.
Shaw also had a really poor IPL earlier this year, where he scored 198 runs in 8 matches at an average of 24.75.
Former England skipper Kevin Pietersen also recently asked Shaw to channelise his energies into getting super-fit and get off social media if he wants to once again savour the sweet taste of success.
“Some of the greatest sports stories are COMEBACK stories. If Prithvi Shaw has decent people around him who care about his long term success, they’d sit him down, tell him to get off social media & train his absolute backside off in getting super fit. It’ll get him back into the correct path where past success can return. Too talented to throw it all away. Love, KP!,” Pietersen had written on ‘X’.