Was it a harsh call to drop Prithvi Shaw from the Test side?

Prithvi Shaw will surely not be a happy man right now. He had done everything in his powers with the willow to get the attention of the selectors. But still, he was left out of India’s squad that will take on New Zealand in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

Shining brightly

Prithvi Shaw in Vijay Hazare 2021:

105*(89)
34(38)
227*(152)
36(30)
2(5)
185*(123) in Quarter-Final
165(122) in Semi-Final
73(39) in Final

827 runs from 8 matches innings including 1 double hundred, 3 hundreds and 1 fifty. What an incredible season for Mumbai Captain. pic.twitter.com/9CnMVNOCYW

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) March 14, 2021

Shaw was in cracking form in the 2021 edition of the IPL and dominated the opposition. The 21-year-old right-hander plundered 308 runs in the 14^th edition of the IPL and scored his runs at an average of 38.50. Also, in the 2021 edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Shaw lit up the tournament with his pyrotechnics with the willow.

He blasted a whopping 827 runs in the tournament and scored his runs at an average of 165.40. He also scored 4 hundreds and a fifty in the 8 innings that he played in the tournament. So, what more can Shaw do other than score a bucketload of runs?

Ruled out of the national team

Now, let us take a look at Shaw’s recent Test performances. In the two-match Test series against New Zealand in 2020, Shaw aggregated 98 runs at an average of 24.50. And, it was a series where almost every Indian batsman failed to score runs. Virat Kohli himself scored just 38 runs in 4 innings put together at an average of 9.50, and Cheteshwar Pujara could muster just 100 runs at an average of 25.00.

And then, Shaw was picked in the playing XI for the first Test against Australia at Adelaide, and he scored 4 runs in both innings put together. And, after a failure in the 1^st Test, Shaw was abruptly dropped from the Indian Test side. And after that, Shaw could not get a chance to feature in the remaining 3 Test matches in Australia, nor was he given a chance in the four-match Test series against England at home.

The decision to ignore Shaw from the India Test squad is definitely a harsh one, especially considering the fact that he was in scintillating form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as well as the 2021 edition of the IPL. Shaw is only 21, and still has a long way to go in his career. And, if he can continue to score runs with the willow, he will soon find himself in the Indian Test playing XI.