Each day was hard after the ban and I was desperate to play: Prithvi Shaw

Prithvi Shaw has had to go through some hard times. His journey from domestic cricket to making his debut for India in October 2018 was alike a fairy-tale. But reality slapped him as an ankle injury ruled him out of the tour of Australia. His troubles increased as in July this year, he was found to have consumed Terbutaline, a banned substance. Thereafter, the BCCI banned him.

Earlier this year, he submitted his urine sample during the SMAT Trophy after which he was suspended until November 15. Recently, he made a comeback during the same T20 tournament in the match versus Assam at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. At the iconic venue, the Young Turk notched 63 runs and helped his team win the match by a mammoth margin of 83 runs.

Recently, Shaw reminisced the times after he was banned. “I never thought something like this would happen. I was obviously upset. For the first 20-25 days after I was banned, I was not able to make any sense of things,” Shaw was quoted as saying in an interview with Mid-Day.

I had no idea what I was consuming: Prithvi Shaw

“After that, I stabilised and kept myself mentally strong. Each day was hard. I was desperate to play a game. I was excited about today’s game and what better than a victory. I’ll keep scoring runs; this is my job,” the youngster stated. During the ban, Shaw trained under former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

“This period (of suspension) has been a big learning experience for me. Obviously, I committed a mistake. I had no idea what I was consuming. In that period, I was alone and was trying to stay away from people and their advice. I kept telling myself that I can get out of this mess and be mentally strong,” he added.

Shaw scored a Test century in his very first appearance in Rajkot and followed it up with another fifty in Hyderabad. The performances earned him the Player of the Series award after India beat the West Indies by 2-0. From there on, it has been a pretty hard grind for Shaw.

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