Prithvi Shaw expressed his disappointment and vowed to come back after the batter was dropped from Mumbai’s Vijay Hazare Trophy squad for at least the first three games, which was announced on Tuesday. Notably, Shaw was the part of Mumbai squad that won the recently-concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, beating Madhya Pradesh in the final.
Reacting to the snub, Shaw took a screenshot of his List A statistics along with a message on his Instagram story which reads, “Tell me God, what more do I have to see..if 65 innings, 3399 runs at an average of 55.7 with a strike rate of 126, I’m not good enough…but I will keep my faith in you and hopefully people believe in me still..cause I will come back for sure..OM SAI RAM.”
Shaw has played 65 List A games, scoring 3399 runs at an average of 55.7 and with a strike rate of 125.8. In the SMAT, Shaw managed just 197 runs in nine innings, which included his crucial 49 against Vidarbha in the quarterfinal. Earlier, Shaw saw no bidders in the IPL 2025 mega auction that took place in Saudi Arabia last month.
A U-19 World Cup-winning India captain, Shaw rose to fame in 2019 when he scored a hundred against West Indies on his Test debut. His international career lasted just 12 games before off-field issues started taking over cricket in his career.
What followed was severe criticism as former cricketers who have worked with him started questioning his work ethics and discipline. Even his Mumbai teammate Shreyas Iyer was blunt and up-front when asked about Shaw.
“We can’t babysit anyone, right? He has played so much of cricket. Everyone has given him inputs. At the end of the day, it’s his job to figure out things for himself. And he has also done it in the past. It’s not that he hasn’t,” said Iyer after Mumbai’s SMAT triumph.
“He has to focus. He has to sit back, put a thinking cap on. He will get the answer by himself. No one can force him to do anything.” Besides Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane too was dropped from the squad despite his extraordinary form.
