After a long wait of 537 days, Prithvi Shaw returned to the Indian team. After an explosive domestic season, Shaw, who last appeared for India in a T20I against Sri Lanka in July 2021, was recalled to the side for the home series against New Zealand in the shortest format. But despite the form, the 23-year-old came through the three-match competition with India supporting his U-19 World Cup teammate Shubman Gill. A month after the end of that series, which India won by a margin of 2-1, Shaw opened a selective insult to the Indian team management.
Shaw returned to the Indian side in an impressive run in domestic cricket, scoring 363 runs in the 2022 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy before scoring a masterful 379 in the Ranji Trophy. However, Indian captain Hardik Pandya and head coach Rahul Dravid backed Gill, who despite a decent start to his T20I career, had the management’s support after his superb double ton in the ODI series against New Zealand.
Gill struggled in the first two matches of the New Zealand series, scoring 7-6 and 11-9 before responding with a blistering 126* in the final in Ahmedabad.
Speaking to News24 Sports, Shaw admitted that returning to the Indian team was more important to him than a chance in the playing eleven.
“I felt really happy to be back in the T20I squad, meeting the players and training with them. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Yes, I didn’t get the opportunity, but I got the chance to make a comeback, that’s what mattered,” he said.
“It was all up to them when to play, when not to play, but I respected that because they probably wanted to give the person in front of me a bit more of a run. But then again, I don’t regret it. I will keep looking for opportunities as I have a list of goals that I want to achieve with the Indian team,” he added.
Asked further why he thought it took him a long time to come back, Shaw said: “I kept scoring. I felt that if it was not enough, I had to score more and more…then I scored 379. It was just my day and I felt that I was not going to let this opportunity go by. Sometimes you just wonder why I’m not in the Indian team for so long despite all my efforts… but it’s never too late.”
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