The youngster Prithvi Shaw, who has been known for his remarkable performances, is now struggling to give a good start to Team India in New Zealand. His poor run of form continued in both innings of the first Test match at Basin Reserve in New Zealand. Before playing the Test series, he was also the part of the ODI series where he had also struggled after getting a start. But the Indian captain Virat Kohli has thoroughly backed Shaw, and he is hopeful that the best is yet to come from the latter.
In Wellington, Prithvi Shaw scored 16 and 14 in first and second innings respectively. He was exposed in front of pacers Tim Southee and Trent Boult. Shaw looked totally uncomfortable on the bouncy Basin Reserve surface which further put India into a spot of bother early on.
Virat Kohli backs Prithvi Shaw:
Speaking to the same, Kohli doesn’t want to put pressure on the youngster and also don’t want to judge the player by one or two innings. Kohli believes that the 20-year old is a ‘destructive’ batsman and just needs some time to bring out his best.
“I don’t think at this stage, we need to sit down and discuss what’s going wrong because I don’t see anything wrong. It’s the execution of things which was not there,” Kohli said.
“It is just a matter of understanding the pace of the wicket and conditions as soon as possible. Again, when he is in a clear frame of mind, he is very, very destructive. Once he feels that he can do it, I think it will be a different ball game. The mindset can shift very quickly,” Kohli said.
“Prithvi obviously wants to perform and no doubt about it, every batsman wants to. We need to give him that time to get used to the conditions a little bit and once he starts scoring, he will feel more confident about it,” the captain added.
Kohli’s statement hints that Shaw will be given a chance in the next Test match which will commence from February 29 in Christchurch.