The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday announced the squad for the upcoming World Test Championship final and the following the five-match Test series against England. One stark exclusion from the side was Prithvi Shaw, who was in rollicking form with the bat. Former India cricketer Ashish Nehra reflected on Shaw’s ouster and labelled it as a harsh call.
Incidentally, the youngster from Mumbai was dropped from the playing XI after his poor returns in the first Test against Australia last year. A lot was talked about his faulty technique and head falling over his shoulder resulting in a big gap between his bat and pad. Prithvi Shaw took it on the chin and worked tirelessly during the rest of the tour and after travelling back to India.
And the result was there to see. The right-handed batter smacked 827 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at a staggering average of over 150 leading to IPL 2021. Prithvi continued his brilliant form for Delhi Capitals playing some breathtaking knocks for his franchise. He got out cheaply on two occasions and incidentally, Delhi lost both of those games. On the back of his brilliant show, many expected Prithvi Shaw to earn a call back to the Test squad. But surprisingly, he was left out.
Dropping Prithvi Shaw from Test squad is harsh – Ashish Nehra
Reflecting on the manner in which Shaw found himself out of the reckoning from India’s squad in the longest format, former speedster Ashish Nehra termed the right-handed batsman’s exile ‘harsh’.
“As far as technique is concerned, for any player it is difficult to adjust. Even during the Adelaide Test, he wasn’t a player who had a lot of experience or played 30-40 Test matches. We were talking about a youngster. To drop him on the basis of one Test match was tough,” Nehra told Cricbuzz.
Although Prithvi Shaw was almost unstoppable this season, he was in and out of the Delhi Capitals squad last season. Ashish Nehra believes the youngster should have played in all games ahead of Ajinkya Rahane.
“It’s one thing that India went on to win the series but even then, I felt that he shouldn’t have been benched after one Test match. Even during last year’s IPL, I felt he shouldn’t have been dropped. He played a few good innings but couldn’t score runs. But I will always back a player who has more runs than Rahane when you talk of T20 cricket. I’m not saying that Rahane is not a good player, but in T20 cricket you need explosive players like Shaw, Pant, Stoinis and Hetmyer,” Nehra asserted.
