Under the SKanner: Prithvi Shaw

Prithvi Shaw - the young batting sensation, who has been in the spotlight in recent times, has been accumulating a lot of runs in different tournaments. The 18-year-old became the youngest player to score a century on Duleep trophy debut, a record that was previously held by Sachin Tendulkar. Not only this, he also scored a century on his debut for Mumbai in the semi-final of Ranji Trophy.

Shaw was in the news for the first time when he played a mammoth 546-run innings in Harris Shield, a Mumbai based elite division match. He was recently named as the skipper of the India Under-19 team for the upcoming World Cup.

Now, let's analyze the current India U-19 captain's strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths

1. Aggressive Batsman

One of Shaw's biggest strengths is his attacking ability. He always steps on the accelerator and tries to score quick runs, irrespective of the format. When a batsman scores quick runs, the bowlers cannot execute their plans properly and they need to rethink their strategy.

This is one of the greatest advantages for any aggressive batsman. His strike rate is over 75 in longer formats and over 90 in the 50-over format. In the Vinoo Mankad Interzonal Tournament, he had a very high strike rate of 128 and he scored one of the quickest centuries of the tournament.

2. Consistency

The Mumbaikar averages 63 in the longer formats and has been performing very consistently. He has scored 945 runs in 8 first-class matches.

In the last year's Vinoo Mankad Trophy U-19 One Day Limited Zonal League, he scored 277 runs and an average of 92 runs. When he gets going, he's unstoppable, and the rate at which he scores these runs is marvellous.

3. Technical Batsman

Prithvi Shaw is very strong on both the front foot and the back foot. He plays the cut and pull shots very well. Shaw likes to drive the ball on the up and his drives are a treat to watch. He is equally good against fast bowlers as he is against spinners.

4. Dancing Feet

Shaw is very good at using his feet against spinners. Advancing forward often forces spinners to change their length. This is one of his greatest advantages. Since he's an attacking player, he always looks to come down the wickets targeting the spinners.

Weaknesses

1. Short Deliveries

Shaw hasn't been tested against quality bouncers. He has played many matches at the first-class level and some matches against international teams at the U-19 level, but hasn't faced many good bouncers and short deliveries. He's yet to prepare for the bouncy tracks.

2. Attacking Good Length Deliveries

Because of his attacking nature, he doesn't try to defend most of the balls and instead tries to drive them on the rise, which is a problem when the ball is swinging. This has been his problem in many matches and has lead to him getting out. He needs to work a lot on his defensive technique.

3. The Bermuda Triangle Line

People will be surprised to see the name Bermuda Triangle used in cricket. It's used to define the difficulty to judge whether the ball is going to pitch outside the off stump line. Most batsmen have problems with this line.

Prithvi Shaw is no exception to this. His ability to leave or play the ball outside the off stump isn't very accurate. Every now and then he flirts with the ball that pitches outside the off stump in the initial stages of his innings