2018-19 India Tour of Australia - Prithivi Shaw's Untimely Injury Adds to India's Opening Woes As First Test Looms

Prithvi Shaw’s freak ankle injury in the tour game against Cricket Australia XI in Sydney is a big blow to the Indian team ahead of the series opener in Adelaide from the 6^th of December. With Shaw ruled out of the Test and in doubt for the second starting in Perth four days after, it means that India will be forced to go back to Murali Vijay – who was dropped after his poor performance in the first two Test in England earlier this year. He would partner Lokesh Rahul who, apart from his 149 at The Oval in September, hasn’t much to write home about since last year.


Why is Shaw’s injury a big deal?

Prithivi Shaw is a prodigious talent who burst onto international Test cricket with a man-of-the-match performance – 134 in just 154 balls – against the West Indies in Rajkot in October this year. He followed that with scores of 70 and 33 not out in Hyderabad – again scored at a blistering pace. He looked in ominous touch in the tour game in Sydney with a 69-ball 66. He registered quick fifties in both innings (62 in 88 balls and 50 in 53 balls) against New Zealand-A in Mount Maunganui – in India-A’s first unofficial Test earlier this month. He has been in exceptional form in first-class cricket since January, 2017 scoring 1530 runs in 28 innings at a staggering average of 56.67, including 7 hundreds.

Overall, he has scored 1767 runs in 31 first-class innings at an average of 60.93 and strike rate of 78.81. This includes 8 hundreds and 8 fifties.
He has great hand-eye coordination and a knack to get big scores at blitzkrieg pace. He is a big boundary hitter as the 246 boundaries in just 17 first class career matches indicate. He is very much in the Sehwag-mould of batting and has the potential to change the game in a session, opening the batting against the hard new red ball on the true Australian pitches. Even a quick 35-40 by Shaw could set the pace for the other Indian batsmen – something Sehwag did consistently in his Test career.