Said To Be Next Sachin Tendulkar, This Young Batsman Is Next Vinod Kambli: Players come and players go. Not all talented and prodigious players make it to the top for long period as some of the others. It’s the rule of any sport.
Cricket is the same. Indian cricket even more so. Because the amount of talented players in India is innumerable. But only few are able to keep their head calm and in the right direction to succeed.
Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli:
Once there were two young boys, both immensely talented, and both even made it to the Indian team and had good starts. One remained aligned with his goals, but the other frittered away his talents and profligated his abilities.
About three decades later, we have a similar situation in front of us. Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill. Both part of the 2018 Under-19 World Cup triumph.
Prithvi Shaw got a rollicking start to his India career with a Test century on his Test debut in 2018 against West Indies.
However, in five years, Shaw could only add 4 more Test matches, 6 ODIs, and 1 T20I to his records while Shubman Gill has opened for India in 2 WTC Finals and, if things so as it’s going now, he will open in the World Cup 2023 as well.
Meanwhile, Prithvi Shaw is finding life and fame tough to handle, many would say. More so in his recent fiasco with model and influence Sapna Gill which also required Prithvi Shaw to make some round of a police station. At the time he should be spending as much time in the nets and learning the art from coaches and senior and ex-players, he’s checking his FIR reports and paying his lawyers to get him out of a jam, which could have been avoided.
And it is not to forget his lack of effort on his fitness and discipline. On the cricketing front, while once Ravi Shastri hailed him as a mixture of Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar. and Sehwag, currently Prithvi Shaw is struggling to tackle the balls that swing and nip back into the stumps.
The most recent IPL, IPL 2023, saw him return with forgettable numbers – average of 13 in 8 innings.
We can only hope Prithvi Shaw get himself back on track, in life and in cricket. Because he could be an asset in all formats. A generational talent in scare of throwing all he could have.
