Prithvi Shaw’s self-destruction worse than Vinod Kambli as India’s ‘next Tendulkar’ stands deserted after IPL snub

It’s January of 2018, midway through India’s campaign at the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand. January 11, to be precise. The day head coach Rahul Dravid turned 45.

Dravid had been coach of the India Under-19 and India ‘A’ sides since 2015, had handheld the young lads and made them battle ready. He was a cricket coach, a life coach, a father figure, all rolled in one. He wasn’t a strict disciplinarian but hey, he was Rahul Dravid, right?

Not to Prithvi Shaw, he wasn’t. The cheeky young fella thought little of cake-smashing the former India captain, who just gave up and surrendered, losing himself in the sea of his young charges who took expressing their affection for him to new heights. The leader of that ‘brat pack’? Captain Shaw.

Shaw also orchestrated the celebrations and photo sessions that followed India’s eight-wicket demolition of Australia in the final. You could see that he had that little something, the short young lad with strokes to die for.

It was no surprise that within nine months, he made his Test debut, against West Indies in Rajkot. No surprise either that he crowned his first senior appearance with 134, making him India’s second youngest Test centurion after Sachin Tendulkar. This Shaw, he sure could bat.

But this Shaw, he sure could self-destruct, too, not unlike his senior Mumbai colleague, Vinod Kambli. In various quarters, the left-handed Kambli was seen as an equal to his great school buddy Tendulkar when it came to the talent stakes. But look at how diametrically opposite paths their international careers took. Kambli ought to have been a case study on how not to be affected by fame and success and money and the trappings of being a successful young cricketer in India. Shaw didn’t seem to have paid any heed, which is why now he is on the outer of even the Indian Premier League periphery, unwanted at his base price of ₹75 lakh, shunned by those who invested so much time and energy and emotion in him and have been aghast at how he has repeatedly thrown it all away.

The sad part is that Shaw is only 25, and already a cricketing outcast of sorts. Or, is it that he is only 25 not-so-sad, because he has plenty of time to resurrect his career, to embrace the discipline that the man on whose face he smashed cake nearly seven years back wore/wears proudly on his sleeve?

That’s entirely up to Shaw. In his brief stint at the highest level, there have been several warning bells, several well-intentioned slices of advice, some tough love, a little bit of mollycoddling because, let’s face it, how many people make their Test debut at 18? But he hasn’t given all of that the respect it deserved. Maybe he took his talent for granted – how he could, when even the great Tendulkar didn’t for even a second, only he can answer – and maybe he thought he could dabble in the good things in life and still get away, but especially in today’s ultra-competitive world of cutthroat professional sport, there is no place for shortcuts, no room for being casual and off-handed, nothing to be gained from forsaking commitment for the sake of a good time.

Shaw his worst enemy

Beyond the cricket field, Shaw has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, most of them because of his flashy lifestyle. This isn’t meant to moral police, but whether he likes it or not, he is a public figure and therefore needs to be aware, indeed conscious, of his conduct in public space. But it’s what he does, or doesn’t do, on the cricket field that is paramount, and when someone like Ricky Ponting, who spent so much time working on Shaw during their time in Delhi Capitals, washes his hands off the still-young man, it’s both poignant and a stark reminder of the pitfalls of not being disciplined and committed enough.

Shubman Gill was Shaw’s teammate at the New Zealand Under-19 World Cup, and he has now graduated to become India’s vice-captain in both limited-overs formats. Sarfaraz Khan, like Shaw panned for his lack of fitness and therefore benched by Royal Challengers Bangalore even though he was retained ahead of the 2018 season, is a regular in the Test squad. These are reference points he would do well to focus on, if only to truly understand how life in the fast lane has passed him by. More than any bowler, Shaw has been his worst enemy. If he wants to get his career back on track, he now needs to be his best friend, and gratefully accept all the assistance that is certain to come his way.