Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has fielded Mumbai batsman Prithvi Shaw, who was left out of the team’s Ranji Trophy squad due to fitness concerns.
The disadvantaged Indian batsman was left out of the defending Ranji Trophy champions squad for the third round match against Tripura. The Indian Express reported that Shaw was asked by the Mumbai Cricket Association’s selection committee to follow a fitness program prepared by MCA trainers for two weeks.
Team management had told MCA that Shaw’s body contained 35 percent fat and required intense training before returning to the team.
Shaw, 24, had a poor start to the domestic season, scoring 59 runs in the first two Ranji Trophy matches. Shaw had hit 76 in two innings in Mumbai’s season-opening Iran Cup victory in Lucknow, but then faced a slump.
However, Gavaskar defended the show and argued that waist size is not the only indicator of cricket fitness. He drew similarities between Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan, who scored his maiden Test hundred against New Zealand in Bangalore recently.
“There have been various reports about his omission from the Ranji team. It would be understandable if it was about his attitude, approach and discipline, but as one report suggests I hope it has nothing to do with my weight,” Gavaskar wrote in a column for Mid-Day.
“According to the report, his body fat was 35 per cent higher. In the last Test in Bangalore, Sarfaraz Khan, whose weight and figure are also in the news, played a brilliant innings of 150. The way he played showed that Waist’s shape or size is not the deciding factor in cricket fitness,” Gavaskar added.
“What matters is whether you can score 150 or more runs and do that all day long, or whether you can bowl more than 20 overs in a day. That should be the only criterion for a player’s fitness. By the way. How many athletes like Prithvi Shaw have scored 379 with zero or minimal body fat?I am resting my claims when it comes to fitness,” Gavaskar said.
Shaw last appeared in the Test for India in 2020. Shaw has hit 400 in the last three Ranji Trophy seasons, including a record-breaking 379 against Assam in the 2022-23 tournament, the highest by a Mumbai batsman in the tournament. It’s a point.
