‘Prithvi Shaw will play for India,’ Sachin Tendulkar had predicted 10 years ago

For Prithvi Shaw, 2018 is turning out to be a great year. After leading India to win in the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year in New Zealand he followed it up with an impressive Indian Premier League, the 18-year-old has now been called up in the Indian Test squad for the final two Test matches in England. And none other than Sachin Tendulkar had long ago said that Shaw would go on to play for the national team.

Shaw, along with Hyderabad batsman Hanuma Vihari were included in the Test squad led by Virat Kohli for the ongoing Test series. Out of form opening batsman, Murali Vijay and chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav were excluded from the squad that was picked for the first three matches.

Speaking during a live interaction with fans on his app 100MB, Tendulkar said: “Ten years ago, one of my friends asked me to take a look at a young Prithvi. He asked me to analyse his game and see if there anything he could work on. I had a session with him and gave couple of pointers on how to improve his game. I told my friend later that he is going to go on and play for India.”

Asked Shaw not to change his grip

“I asked him not change his grip or stance, irrespective of any future instructions from his coaches. If anyone asks him to do so, tell them to come talk to me. Coaching is good, but overcooking a player with tweaks is not,” Tendulkar added.

Teenage sensation Shaw has been making headlines ever since he played for Mumbai in the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy in 2016-17 as a 16-year-old. To date, he has played 14 first-class games so far at an impressive average of 56.72 and already has seven hundreds and five fifties.

He had a magnificent series for India ‘A’ in England, scoring over 600 runs in 10 innings. His highest score of 188 also came in the game against the West Indies ‘A’ at Beckenham in this series. In the recent two-unofficial Test series against South Africa ‘A’, too, Shaw hit a century in Bengaluru.

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