29-years after Milind Rege was a part of selection led by Naren Tamhane that changed Indian cricket forever – the selection of country’s very own Sachin Tendulkar in the Mumbai squad to face Gujarat in Ranji Trophy in 1988 by the then captain Milind Rege. Now Rege as MCA chief selector has backed the decision to pick rookie Prithvi Shaw.
Seemingly impressed with Shaw’s debut ton against Tamil Nadu in Ranji’s semis, which eventually saw Mumbai reach the final for record 46th time, Rege said the right-handed batsman is a huge investment for the state cricket and believes he will touch the sky with his potential and age being on his side. Rege, also said he will improve under the right guidance.
“Prithvi is a huge investment for Mumbai cricket. Hopefully, he will get the right guidance to become a better player. The sky is the limit for him. The important thing is that he has a good temperament. Let’s pray this will continue.”
Talking further about the 17-year-old, Rege hailed his IQ, saying it takes a good brain to score runs in such a young age by showing a decent temperament altogether. He said Shaw has all the shots in his book and won’t find it tough to extract runs, top the order if he continues to play such way.
“Importantly, Prithvi has a high batting IQ. This knock showed that he has that IQ which is so essential for an opening batsman. He has all the shots, but needs to play shots according to the nature of the wicket.”
Rege, the former Mumbai opener couldn’t stop himself from talking about Shaw’s conventional technique, highlighting his ability to play with the straight bat.
“He batted like a matured opening batsman in a positive frame of mind. He always preferred to play with straight bat. He has good power and plays well off the back foot”, he concluded.