The confusion surrounding teen sensation Prithvi Shaw’s selection has been a much-talked about topic in the Indian cricket fraternity in the last few weeks. One of the most talented teenagers in the country at the moment, Shaw was surprisingly not picked in the squad for the upcoming Under-19 Asia Cup. Instead, he was asked to play in the Ranji Trophy, and although the move spoke volumes of the progress made by Shaw, it did not impress many as the step was a first of a kind.
Shaw, however, justified the move by playing a sublime knock of 123 against Tamil Nadu on the first day of the ongoing game in Mumbai. The right-handed batsman was eventually sent back by none other than India spin spearhead R Ashwin.
Shaw, nonetheless, is another fine example of how beautifully Rahul Dravid is developing the players at the junior level. The coach of India Under-19 and India ‘A’ has already been lauded by many for his exemplary work. Dravid, who was the coach when India Under-19 made it to the final of last year’s World Cup, has now opened up on how to balance age-group cricket, saying that playing too much cricket at the under-19 level is dangerous.
Stating that the team wants Shaw to be a part of next year’s World Cup, Dravid said:
“At the moment, we definitely want him (Prithvi) to be part of the U-19 World Cup team in January. It’s also important to represent your country at the junior level.”
“One of the things I realised when I took over the U-19 team was people stay on and play too much of Under-19, which is dangerous,” the former India captain added.
Dravid’s apprehension was one of the reasons that the players were barred last year from playing in two U-19 World Cups anymore, and now the state associations are also willing to give chances to the youngsters in first-class cricket.
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“Guys like Washington Sundar, Zeeshan Ansari, Mahipal Lomror and Armaan Jaffer have all been picked in their first-class sides. That is a positive for me. Even the state associations are looking ahead. They are not forcing them to play U-19 cricket,” he said.
“Age group cricket has a purpose to solve but it’s limited. Then on they have to go and play men’s cricket. That’s what we decided with Prithvi as well,” he added.