Former Indian batter Mohammed Kaif urged Prithvi Shaw to go back to basics and start from scratch to get his career on the right track. Shaw’s career reached a new low when he went unsold at the IPL 2025 mega auction.
Kaif, who was the fielding coach for Delhi Capitals, recalled that the franchise gave Shaw many chances, thinking he would click for them at the top of the order but it wasn’t to be the case.
Shaw could only manage 198 runs in eight matches at an average of 24.75 and could not deliver consistently for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024.
The Mumbai batter has been under the scanner for fitness and disciplinary issues in the recent past and needs to turn a corner.
“Delhi has backed Prithvi Shaw a lot. DC had hoped that he is a powerplay player and would hit 6 boundaries in one over. And he did that too. He hit Shivam Mavi for 6 fours in an over. He had a lot of potential and DC backed him to the hilt. We always thought that if Shaw manages to score, we will win. And we gave him a lot of chances,” Mohammed Kaif said on Jio Cinema during the IPL auction.
Kaif, who was the Natwest trophy final hero against England, recalled how the management would think of dropping Shaw but on match day, they will decide to pick him after considering his immense talent.
“There were meetings in the night where we would sit and ponder if Prithvi should play or not because he has been failing. So at night we would decide that Prithvi would not be in the playing XI, and then later on the day of the match, we would change our decision – that, no he will because maybe if he goes big, we would win,” Kaif narrated a team selection story.
Kaif said it is a matter of ‘embarrassment’ for the young batter that no IPL team bid for him despite his base price set at 75 lakhs.
“Prithvi got a lot of chances and teams have now finally moved on, and it is a matter of embarrassment that he did not get a bid for Rs 75 lakh. Maybe now, he finally goes back to basics. Someone like Sarfaraz Khan got into the national team by scoring lots and lots of runs,” the former India cricketer concluded.
Shaw will look to get big runs in the domestic circuit to once again prove his mettle.
