Prithvi Shaw opened up on being benched in the first two matches for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024.
Prithvi Shaw reminded the world of his explosive batting skills when the Delhi Capitals opener smashed a quickfire 43 off 27 balls against Chennai Super Kings during Sunday evening’s Indian Premier League match in Visakhapatnam. Playing his first game of IPL 2024, Shaw struck two sixes and four fours to give DC an explosive start along with David Warner to take DC to 93 inside 10 overs. The Capitals built on it, riding on a half-century by captain Rishabh Pant to post 191, a total that proved match-winning in the end.
Prithvi Shaw looked good during his little cameo. (AP)
With doubts around his form and fitness rising, Shaw shut mouths with his belligerent start, giving the Capitals and more importantly, himself the assurance that when in full flow, there are fewer youngsters more exciting to watch than Shaw. Returning to the Playing XI, Shaw had a memorable experience playing in front of a capacity Vizag crowd, something he tried to sum up in conversation with the IPL official website.
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“I don’t really know about this year but obviously during the IPL, they expect me to whack the ball, whack every ball. I don’t take it as pressure or anything. I take it as a challenge and try to do my best. Felt good to play white-ball after so long. It was a good atmosphere,” Shaw said.
“After coming out of injury, of course that hunger is there. You want to middle the ball and IPL is that kind of a game, where you middle the ball, you know it’s your day. Usually, it’s about trying and hitting everything but today I was playing smartly because in 4 overs we were 24.”
Shaw joined Delhi back in 2018, the year the Delhi Daredevils were rechristened to the Delhi Capitals, and has remained with the franchise ever since. With 1737 runs from 72 matches at an average of 24.13 with 13 half-centuries, Shaw’s numbers may not be phenomenal but he has got the job done more often than not. In 2021, Shaw was one of the highest scorers of the season, amassing 479 runs, but injuries and poor form proved detrimental to his rise.
‘I am not a kid anymore. I’m one of the seniors,’ says Shaw
Opening up on his transition from a kid to one of the seniors in the team, Shaw opened up on his discussions with the DC staff when he was benched against Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals.
“This is my seventh year with the Delhi Capitals franchise and they have always welcomed me very nicely. They have looked after me like a kid. I’m not a kid anymore; I have become a senior player now since it’s my 7th year. But this year too they knew about my injury. And those five months how difficult it was to come back to the field and get into that zone again. But I was really supported by the owners, support staff, Ricky [Ponting] sir, Sourav [Ganguly] sir, Praveen [Amre] sir,” added Shaw.
“When I didn’t get to play the first two games, they were telling me that you will get an opportunity. We are just trying to do some new stuff and to be honest, I was really happy with it. I just knew that once the opportunity came, I’ll do my best.”
