5 Players who can make their India debut before T20 World Cup 2020

1. Prithvi Shaw

A left-field choice really, considering the fact that India already has three openers in the mix in the form of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and KL Rahul, but one definitely worth trying out with two back-to-back T20 World Cups coming up in 2020 & 2021. Prithvi Shaw is not the first Mumbai batsman to turn the heads of the cricketing folklore with his precocious talent, and he certainly won’t be last.

And, just like a certain teenager did three decades ago, this young prodigy too didn’t take much time in showcasing his manic batting skills. His unprecedented 546- the highest score in competitive cricket at the time- as a 14-year-old were first signs of his precocious talent. The Mumbaikar then proceeded to score a hundred on both his Duleep Trophy and Ranji Trophy debut; a feat achieved previously only by the Great Sachin Tendulkar.

In 2018, Shaw led India to World Cup glory in U19 cricket and soon went on to make his India debut later in Test cricket later in the year against the West Indies. His 99-ball-100 on debut was another testimony to his seamless transition from domestic to international cricket until an injury and a subsequent drug test failure put an abrupt halt to his career. With the suspension due to end shortly, it’ll be interesting to see how the teenage responds to adversity.

A predominantly bottom-handed batsman, Shaw is a fierce puller and hooker of the game. His bottom-handed play allows him to generate a great speed off his bat and his domestic T20 numbers enforce the fact that he could be the torchbearer of the next generation of Indian openers in white-ball cricket. And someone who India should invest in, keeping the two T20 World Cups in mind. In 33 T20s thus far, Shaw has scored 733 runs at a strike-rate of 143.24 including five half-centuries.