Prithvi Shaw was dropped from Mumbai's Vijay Hazare Trophy squad on Tuesday. (PTI)The Mumbai senior selection committee has once again dropped opener Prithvi Shaw from the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy which is scheduled to be played in Ahmedabad from December 21. Shaw was dropped for the 50-over tournament, after Mumbai’s senior selection committee felt that he was out of form and needed to go back to play club games to regain some confidence.
The 25-year-old responded soon after asking to know what more he needed to do to convince selectors, quoting his List A numbers and promising he would be back, in his social media post. “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..”
While Shaw hasn’t played List A in India since the 2022 Vijay Hazare tournament, he turned out for the One Day Cup in England for Northamptonshire county. His last five innings there were 97, 72, 9, 23, 17. When he last played for Mumbai two autumns ago, his last five scores read 32, 54, 39, 51, and 10.
This is not the first time Mumbai selectors have dropped him. Earlier, he was dropped for Ranji Trophy games too citing he needs to improve his fitness.
“His performance is not upto the mark and the selectors felt that he needed to go back and play club cricket,” a source in the MCA informed.
Shaw scored 197 runs in nine T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali games with his best score of 49 runs.
After Mumbai recently won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy beating Madhya Pradesh in Bengaluru, Mumbai skipper Shreyas Iyer was asked about Shaw.
He had replied, “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. 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.”
Iyer has stated that Shaw is god-gifted player and has immense talent. He just has to improve his work ethic.
Rahane asks for break
Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer will lead the Mumbai side while Suryakumar Yadav and Shardul Thakur too have been included in the squad. Mumbai’s veteran opener Ajinkya Rahane has asked for a break which MCA selectors have allowed him. Mumbai will be travelling with a 17-member squad.
Squad: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Ayush Mhatre, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Jay Bista, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Siddhesh Lad, Hardik Tamore, Prasad Pawar, Atharva Ankolekar, Tanush Kotian, Shardul Thakur, Royston Dias, Juned Khan, Harsh Tanna, Vinayak Bhoir.
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