'Can’t become Sehwag or Viv Richards just by playing like them’ – Salman Butt wants Prithvi Shaw to score consistently

Prithvi Shaw’s immense talent at a young age has taken the cricketing world by storm. In a young career, however, Shaw has already seen plenty of ups and downs, which includes a nine-month ban for consuming a prohibited substance.

Having won the Under-19 World Cup for the nation, the now 21-year-old Shaw knows the taste of success, but he also understood how challenging life can get at the highest level when he was scrutinized endlessly after his comeback into the team owing to his technical shortcomings.

He was dropped from the team after a failed outing in Adelaide during India’s tour of Australia in 2020-21, although he lit up the Vijay Hazare Trophy later and showed brilliant form even in the currently-suspended edition of the Indian Premier League to mark a roaring comeback. He was recently a part of the ODIs against Sri Lanka, where even though he could not get a big score, he provided the team aggressive starts up the order.

For his brand of cricket, Shaw often attracts comparisons with the likes of Virender Sehwag and the legendary Vivian Richards. Opening up on the same, former Pakistan opener Salman Butt stated that Shaw will need to perform with consistency if he wants to join the list of legends.

You need big scores to justify a different kind of mindset: Salman Butt

“Some fans feel it is wrong to ask Prithvi Shaw to alter his game. They point out to Virender Sehwag and Viv Richards, who succeeded by playing their own brand of cricket. When you start producing results, you can stake a claim to a particular style of play being yours. You have to score big runs and hundreds to justify a different kind of mindset while batting,” Butt said on his Youtube channel.

“Look at the gap between Richards and Sehwag’s careers. It took nearly 10-15 years after Richards for the cricket world to see a player with a similar attacking mindset in Sehwag. Richards scored 180 in England at a time when 225 was considered a good ODI total. Sehwag scored two triple hundreds in Test cricket and averaged over 50 for most of his career. Just by playing like them, one cannot become a Sehwag or a Richards. You have to put up that kind of a performance,” he added.