Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has made a bold prediction for opening batsman Prithvi Shaw ahead of the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Playing for DC since 2018, Prithvi Shaw is now an integral and a very important member of the team. His role will be even more important this season as DC will be without their captain and one of the batting mainstays Delhi Capitals.
Talking about the opening batsman’s performance in IPL 2022, he had a decent outing. In 10 games, he scored 283 runs with the help of 2 fifties and a strike-rate of over 152. In the 5 seasons of IPL that he has played so far, Prithvi Shaw has never managed to touch the 500-run mark.
He has crossed the 400-run mark in his IPL career just once. With DC eyeing their first-ever IPL title this year, they will be hoping that their star opener delivers with the bat. And Ponting is confident of a good performance from the right-handed batsman.
Praising Prithvi Shaw’s much-criticised work ethic, Ponting said that the batsman has been training really hard. He then predicted that the upcoming season of IPL would be the biggest ever for Shaw.
“He (Shaw) has been at the NCA for training and he has worked and trained better than I have ever seen him do. He is in better physical shape than what I have seen him ever before and I spoke to him the other day about his attitude and how he is training, this is going to be his biggest IPL season.
“He just has that different look in his eyes and you could see he is hungrier than ever, the level of talent and ability he has you will see,” Ricky Ponting told PTI.
Ricky Ponting’s advise for Prithvi Shaw:
Speaking further, Ricky Ponting also shared a piece of advise for the young batsman who is yet to live up to the lofty expectations. The legendary cricketer urged Shaw to work hard and not let the opportunities slip away from him,
“It is documented that I had some issues early on and it is all about being true to yourself and be the best that you can be. One thing I always say to players is that I don’t like laziness and guys not utilising the talent that they have got,”
“The game will take away from you if you don’t pay full attention,” Ponting said.