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Just imagine yourself in the shoes of Prithvi Shaw. You have a U-19 World Cup as a captain, a debut Test century under your belt, and a good IPL contract with the Delhi Capitals (DC). Well, these seem to be the dreams of any budding young cricketer growing up.
It seems like Shaw tasted success way too early. A freakish injury in a practice game in 2018 in Australia turned everything upside down for him, with the right-handed batter falling down the pecking order in the national team setup.
In the IPL, he didn't remain that consistent with his performance for DC. And that was reflected in him getting dropped after the initial matches in IPL 2023.
Prithvi Shaw then decided to hone his skillset and signed a contract with Northamptonshire in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, where he scored a blistering 244 runs against Somerset.
Yes, he is making the right noise for him, but there's also one bitter truth right now; unless you're not setting the IPL on fire, national selectors barely notice.
So, to revive his career, Shaw needs a change in his IPL franchise. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the reasons that make complete sense in this theory.
#3 Change in management, change in fortunes
How many times have we seen that a player's performance and career took a complete U-turn with a change in teams?
Shaw can take inspiration from some of the prior examples of players reviving their fortunes by swapping teams.
In fact, former Capitals assistant coach Shane Watson, who had a mediocre outing with Royal Challengers Bangalore with a lack of proper role clarity, turned into a proper monster with the Chennai Super Kings.
Last year, Ajinkya Rahane also had a breakthrough season with CSK, helping him make a comeback in the Indian Test side.
Sometimes a player gets stuck with their game plan with the same management and although the thinktank knows the player's game throughout, a lack of a new perspective hinders their growth.
#2 No clarity on the future of Shaw in the Capitals
With Phil Salt's emergence in the Delhi Capitals' top order and a lack of trust in Prithvi Shaw, there's no clarity on the latter's future.
After dropping Shaw against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2023 this year, DC head coach Ricky Ponting didn't mince his words.
"Prithvi isn’t playing nearly as well as many other players at the top of the order who are on different teams," he said.
With the right-handed batter's future at DC in doubt, he would do well to move out of the franchise.
#1 Kotla's wicket is a roadblock for Shaw
The Delhi Capitals play their home IPL matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The venue offers a sluggish pitch which is not suitable for stroke-makers like Prithvi Shaw, who likes the ball coming nicely onto his bat.
He thrives on pitches where he can trust the bounce and play through the line. Unfortunately, Kotla doesn't offer that.
It's not that Shaw cannot play and score on pitches like Kotla, but he needs somewhat better luck, another team, and a better home ground in the IPL to come back into the reckoning of the national selectors.
