‘I haven’t seen him since 2017’: Prithvi Shaw’s former coach talks about what went wrong with the U19 World Cup winner

Once called the ‘next big thing’ in Indian cricket, Prithvi Shaw‘s career has declined dramatically in recent years. The man, who made his debut in 2018 and became the youngest Indian certified centurion, is not even a regular in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team at present. After being released by Delhi Capitals ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction, Shaw went unsold at the event despite retaining his base price of Rs 75 million. His attitude towards training and fitness is considered the biggest factor in his downfall, but many are wondering why the talented opening batsman took this path.

Shaw’s former coach Jwala Singh, who led India’s current opening whirlwind, said in an interview: Yashasvi Jaiswal In the past, I have tried to shed some light on this topic. During a chat on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast, Jwala explained that he has not seen Shaw since he won the U19 World Cup in January 2018.

“Prithvi came to me in 2015 and we spent three years together. And when he came, he had never played an U-16 match for Mumbai, so his father He asked me to coach him the next year. He played in the Under-19 games, won the Cooch Behar Trophy, scored big goals in selection games and he was talented from the start, so I give it full credit. I don’t plan on doing it, but at the time it was just me.

“I was excited when he played in the U-19 World Cup because he was my first student. But we haven’t seen each other since.” He’s in 2017 and I’m in 2024, but he hasn’t come to me.

As for the biggest flaw in Shaw’s approach to the game, Jwala feels the player lacks the “work ethic” needed to sustain himself at the top level of cricket. In comparison, Jwala claimed that Yashasvi Jaiswal has shown a good work ethic and that is the reason for his rapid rise to prominence.

“I think the process we call work ethic is that if you have talent, talent is just a seed. Consistency is very important in that process to make it into a tree. And that consistency comes from your lifestyle and work,’ ethics and discipline, so what I feel is that he has no consistency. Although he is off to a great start, he needs to constantly improve his game if he is to remain at the top in international cricket.

“flat Sachin Tendulkar He consistently honed and fine-tuned his game and worked on his fitness and mental toughness. So I think the only time a player goes off course is when they step away from the process. If you have the right processes and work ethic, you won’t back down. So I feel that players fail because of that. As far as Yashasvi is concerned, his work ethic is great. He works really hard and knows what to do. That’s the main difference,” he explained.