Prithvi Shaw shared contrasting stories on his Instagram handle in a space of 9 hours on Thursday that became the talk of the town. The attacking opener's first story, shared on Thursday morning, was a motivational quote with a photo of Shirdi Sai Baba. "Don't give up, your miracle is on the way," read the quote. India's T20I squad for the two-match series in Ireland announced on Wednesday evening may have something to do with it. Shaw's name did not feature in the 17-member squad which had the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav in it.
Shaw was not able to notch up big scores in the recently-concluded IPL 2022 but his strike rate in the powerplay was among the highest. In the 10 matches that he played for Delhi Capitals in the IPL, Shaw scored 283 runs at a strike rate of 153.
The 22-year-old's Instagram story on Thursday evening was an entirely different one. He posted a screengrab from the popular Hollywood movie 'The Avengers: Infinity War' to describe his unusual opening partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Ranji Trophy semi-final between Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh.
In Mumbai's 66-run opening partnership in the second innings, Jaiswal did not score a run. 64 of those were scored by Shaw at a strike rate of 90 while the other two were extras. Jaiswal, who played attacking cricket while opening the batting with Jos Buttler for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2022, remained on nought when Shaw got out for 64 off 71 balls in the 21st over.
When the left-handed Jaiswal finally got off the mark on his 54th ball with a boundary off UP pacer Ankit Rajpoot, the entire Mumbai dressing room stood up and applauded. Some UP players also joined in. Jaiswal saw the funny side to it and raised his bat.
Mumbai produced an incisive bowling display to bundle out Uttar Pradesh for a paltry 180 and take the crucial first-innings lead on the third day. Resuming at the overnight score of 25 for two, UP batters could add just 155 runs as Tushar Deshpande (3/34), off-spinner Tanush Kotian (3/35) and Mohit Avasthi (3/39) shared nine wickets between them for Mumbai. Dhawal Kulkarni (1/25) also chipped in with a scalp.
Mumbai finished Day 3 at 133 for 1, riding on Shaw's blistering 64-run knock that had 12 boundaries in it.