Jwala Singh, who has coached Prithvi Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal, analyzed why the two talented youngsters find themselves in contrasting paths. Singh described Jaiswal's work ethic as superb while revealing that Shaw has not even bothered to meet him after 2017.
Both Shaw and Jaiswal represent Mumbai in domestic cricket. The former made a sensational Test debut in 2018, becoming the youngest Indian to score a century on debut. However, he hasn't represented India since July 2021 and has been in and out of the Mumbai team as well. Jaiswal also made a spectacular start to his international career but has maintained his consistency.
In an interaction with Shubhankar Mishra on the latter's podcast, Singh opened up on why Shaw seems to have lost his way even as Jaiswal is going from strength to strength at the international level.
"Prithvi came to me in 2015 and was with me for three years. And when he came, he had not played Mumbai Under-16 matches, and his father asked me to guide him. Then in next year, he played the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy and scored big in selection matches. And I worked very hard on him. He was talented from the beginning; I will not take full credit because many coaches have worked for him, but at that time it was only me," Singh said (as quoted by NDTV).
"I was excited when he played in the Under-19 World Cup because he was my first student to do so. Before leaving for the Under-19 World Cup, he had celebrated his birthday with me. But I have not seen him since 2017, and we are in 2024; he has not come to me," the coach added.
Shifting focus to Jaiswal, Singh opined that the southpaw has shown a great work ethic and is working hard on his game despite the success that he has achieved in a short period on the big stage.
"Even Sachin Tendulkar refined his game consistently, fine-tuned his game, and worked on his fitness and mental toughness. So, I feel a player goes off track only if he gets away from the process. You will not fall back if your process and work ethic are fine, so I feel players fail because of that. As far as Yashasvi is concerned, his work ethic is superb; he really works hard, and he knows what to do. That is the main difference," Singh went on to explain.
Shaw recently went unsold at the IPL 2025 auction despite a base price of ₹75 lakh. On the other hand, Jaiswal hammered a brilliant ton in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Perth.
Prithvi Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal: Test stats
Having made his debut in October 2018, Shaw has only played five Tests, scoring 339 runs at an average of 42.37, with one hundred and two fifties. He was dropped from the Test side after twin failures in the 2020 Adelaide Test.
As for Jaiswal, he made his Test debut in July 2023 and also scored a hundred. In 15 matches so far, the left-hander has notched up 1,568 runs at an average of 58.07, with four centuries and fifties.
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