India vs New Zealand | Prithvi Shaw Caps Rollercoaster Year with International Recall

It’s fair to say that 2019 was largely a year to forget for Prithvi Shaw. The talented 20-year old batsman has spent more than a year out of the international limelight despite shooting to prominence after leading India to U-19 World Cup glory in late 2018.

A number of ill-timed injuries as well as a backdated doping ban for ingesting a prohibited substance had temporarily stalled his career but the Mumbai batsman will likely get a chance to kickstart his career once again during the tour of New Zealand.

Shaw, who has yet to make his white-ball debut for India, was picked for the ODIs in place of Shikhar Dhawan, who himself has dealt with a spate of badly-timed injuries in recent times.



He celebrated his international recall by top-scoring for India A as they beat New Zealand A by 5 wickets in the first of three unofficial one-day matches, a performance that won’t have gone unnoticed and will only have strengthened his case in the eyes of team management.

It is quite the turnaround for a youngster whose international future – at least in the short term – looked to be on shaky ground.

Injury Plays Spoilsport

Shaw’s backdated ban saw him out of action from July to mid-November, but it can be argued that injuries played a bigger part in stalling his career.

Having missed out on the tour of Australia that saw India register a historic 2-1 series win due to an ankle injury, he would then go on to miss the tour of West Indies right after the World Cup due to a hip injury.

He then made his comeback in the domestic circuit after his ban ended and did reasonably well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy as well as the Ranji Trophy but picked up another injury in a match against Karnataka.

He was initially ruled out of the practice matches for India A’s tour of New Zealand but made a comeback in the second match.

Runs Keep Flowing

What helped his cause was that he made the most of whatever opportunities came his way during that period and was regularly among the runs for his teams.

He made his comeback for Mumbai in the SMA Trophy by making a 32-ball 50 against Assam. He registered two more half-centuries as well as two scores of 30 in the remaining 4 games of the tournament.

He then scored 66 and 202 in Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match against Baroda. He had two forgettable outings against Railways – scoring 12 and 23 – and was then injured against Karnataka, scoring just 29 in the match.

His comeback from injury saw him score 150 against New Zealand XI in a three-day match before he scored 48 for India A in the first unofficial one-day match.

Shaw might not have played an ODI for India just yet but his List A record speaks for itself – 1243 runs in 28 innings at an average of 44.39 and a strike rate of 118.49.

There’s also the fact that he hasn’t missed a beat since coming back from his ban, something he said was down to consistent training during the time.

“I had a lot of things in my mind. I had to beat all those things. I was hungry for runs for last three months (when he was banned). A lot of people pushed, supported me (in this time),” Shaw had told reporters after scoring a double hundred against Baroda.

“You can’t say that I wasted my ban period. I utilised it for training. Somewhere in my mind, I was keen to get back to my best form as soon as I returned from my ban,” he added.

Shaw first came into the national spotlight when he became the fourth Indian captain to lift the U-19 World Cup.

Now back at the venue of arguably the biggest triumph of his young career, he will hope to cement his place back in the national set-up for good.