When Prithvi Shaw is not scoring runs, he won’t bat, and when he is scoring runs, he wants to keep batting all the time: Ricky Ponting

Prithvi Shaw didn’t experience an ideal outing in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), hosted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as he failed to live up to his reputation and was axed from the playing XI at the latter stage of the league. In 13 IPL matches, Shaw scored a mere 228 runs at an average of 17.53 and strike rate of 136.52.

Former Australian captain and IPL franchise Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting opined on the lean patch of the 21-year-old saying that the two weren’t on the same page during IPL 2021 and shared very different philosophies on batting last season. Ponting revealed that he and Shaw were indulged in many conversations as the two tried to reach a middle point regarding how to bring back the form of the opening batsman.

“I’ve had some really interesting chats with him through last year’s IPL, just trying to break him down, trying to find out exactly what was the right way to coach him and how I was going to get the best out of him,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.

While Ponting was in the favor of Prithvi working hard in the nets to improve his game, the batsman didn’t share the same thoughts as he wasn’t keen on batting in nets unless he is able to score runs on the match field. The Australian veteran revealed that Shaw has an interesting theory and he was left amused by the same.

I challenged Prithvi Shaw and he stuck to his word and he didn’t practice much: Ricky Ponting

“But he had an interesting theory on his batting last year — when he’s not scoring runs, he won’t bat, and when he is scoring runs, he wants to keep batting all the time. He had four or five games where he made under 10 and I’m telling him, ‘We have to go to the nets and work out (his issues)’, and he looked me in the eye and said, ‘No, I’m not batting today’.

“I couldn’t really work that out. I was going pretty hard at him. Whatever you think you’re working on, is not working for you. I challenged him and he stuck to his word and he didn’t practice much at all towards the back-end of the tournament and didn’t get many runs towards the back-end of the tournament either,” said Ricky Ponting 

Despite all the differences, the Australian captain hopes that Shaw has brought a change in his attitude and will be looking forward to improving his game as he has a lot of potentials and can excel in the game.