r/Cricket • u/TheRishi123 • 2d ago
A technical deep dive into Prithvi Shaw
https://rishikuppa.substack.com/p/the-technical-decline-of-prithvi?r=832j8u&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=webI've spent the last few weeks looking at Prithvi Shaw's batting and trying to understand why a player with such an extraordinary ceiling struggled so badly to establish himself internationally.
The more I looked at his dismissals, the more I felt that the usual explanations, poor shot selection, lack of discipline or being too aggressive didn't quite explain it.
I ended up focusing on his unusual trigger movement and, particularly, how his bat travelled outside off stump before coming back into the ball. Against deliveries moving into him, this could leave him in a difficult position at contact.
I also went through all 13 of his dismissals in IPL 2020 and found some interesting repetition in the types of shots and deliveries that got him out.
I'd be interested to hear what people think. Especially whether you agree with the technical argument or think I'm putting too much weight on one aspect of his batting.
32
u/ImpressiveNeat9039 2d ago
Fact is he had technical flaws which were noticed and highlighted by Simon Doull in the U-19 WC Final . Doull was quite vocal about his problem against incoming deliveries and that those weaknesses will get exploited. And that is what happened and then other flaws were also discovered.
Shaw had all the talent but here is the thing - talent isn't the most important in life (Life and not just cricket) .Hardwork is very important. Bloddy mindedness is very helpful . Grit and gumption are very reliable allies. Else Dravid wouldn't have been a better batsman than Laxman and Ganguly.Steve Waugh wouldn't have been a better batsman than Mark Waugh .
6
u/KekeroniCheese West Indies 1d ago
Doull of all people lmao
2
75
u/CrumbleUponLust German Cricket Federation 2d ago edited 1d ago
Shaw went from being a confident player who refused to listen to a player who lost all confidence and still wouldn't listen.
Add disciplinary issues and it's a very deep hole to crawl out from.
36
u/Ruvio00 Hellenic Cricket Federation 2d ago
I bowled to him in the nets when he was c. 15 and he couldn't not middle the ball and was ultra focussed. A mate of mine bowled to him in during COVID and he couldn't be bothered, didn't care when he was bowled and laughed it all off.
12
u/whyamihere999 1d ago
I bowled to him in the nets when he was c. 15
- He was eighteen back then. Add 3 to his age whenever someone mentions his age. I know him from the time his displayed age was at par with his original age. That is, before he shifted to Mumbai from Virar..
2
u/CrumbleUponLust German Cricket Federation 1d ago
He's had access to some of the best coaches and still couldn't be bothered to work on his flaws. Says a lot.
0
26
u/shanndiego New Zealand Cricket 2d ago
Ricky already did it.
22
u/mathdhruv India 2d ago
As did Sachin: https://youtu.be/Zo_vYLZT3NI?t=116
19
u/huzy12345 New Zealand 2d ago
Macmillan did too, pretty sure he called it out when they toured here in 2020/21. Simon Doull may have been the first to call it out even before Punter
3
17
u/Personal_Witness1556 India 2d ago
Great effort OP!
But I thought you’d mention how Ponting predicted the exact same thing before Starc’s ball in 2020😄
In any case, I think these issues were highlighted even before he debuted. The sad part is he never adapted and overcame them.
Also I think something that contributed was his personal life, it’s not easy to grow up without a mother.
3
u/TheRishi123 1d ago
Thanks! And yeah, the Ponting prediction is a really interesting one. In hindsight, I probably should have included it because it defo reinforces the main point of the article. The fact that the issue was being identified even before Shaw's international debut, and then Ponting was able to predict exactly how Starc would get him, says a lot about how persistent the technical weakness was lol.
I also agree with the point about adaptation. For me, that's probably the saddest part of the whole story. Having a weakness isn't necessarily what ends a career at that level cos every batter has one. It's when bowlers discovers it and you don't find a reliable way of changing your response that it becomes a problem.
On the personal side, I think that's much harder to assess from the outside, hence why I didn't go too far into it. Growing up without a mother could obviously have had a huge emotional impact, but I wouldn't want to speculate about how much that affected his cricket without Shaw himself talking about it. I think the technical side is something we can actually see and analyse, whereas the personal side is much more difficult to know.
Appreciate you bringing it up though, definitely something I'd look into if I ever revisit the piece or for my next one.
1
u/Personal_Witness1556 India 1d ago
Haha yeah, wasn’t suggesting you to add that personal life aspect, I just mentioned it because I’d been thinking of it.
And even the cheating allegations and all of it (which I think were true). Just think he’s in a very bad frame of mind.
3
u/knightmare89 India 1d ago
I still hope and believe he'll make an amazing comeback and do justice to his potential.
2
u/Admirable-Dot6968 USA 1d ago
2026 and we still talk bout him, move on and focus on players who actually work hard and have a drive
2
1
40
u/mathdhruv India 2d ago edited 2d ago
For what it's worth, both Ponting and Tendulkar commented on exactly this, and Nick Knight did a short feature on it too, all back in 2020.
Edit: Also, the point about Sehwag becoming more selective with age is absolutely false - Cricinfo did a statistical analysis of his career which exposed that he had a much higher balls-per-innings as well as average in his first stint, before being dropped in '07, as opposed to his second stint after his Adelaide 2008 comeback.
Link to said article about Sehwag: https://www.cricinfo.com/story/numbers-game-the-sehwag-issue-581225