Indian opening batsman and skipper of the Mumbai Prithvi Shaw on Thursday scored his 4th century in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy and is now the leading run scorer of the tournament. The Mumbai captain hit his second consecutive century (his 4th in the tournament) and has cemented his team’s position against the strong Karnataka opposition on Thursday.

Prithvi Shaw’s Inconsistent Form

To say Prithvi Shaw has been having a difficult time on the cricket ground would be an understatement. Bought by the Delhi Capitals franchise in 2020- Shaw realized that his kryptonite were short balls. The Delhi Capital took a leap of faith and continued having him take to the pitch, but Shaw ended up scoring only 228 runs in his 13 innings at an underwhelming average of 17.53. His scorecards include some innings that he would likely want to forget including scores like 0, 7, 19, 5, 2.

After the IPL 2020 concluded, Indian selectors showed his faith and included him in the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Although his selection divided cricket fans, the Indian squad showed belief in the young opener. However, as if fate was not on his side, Shaw just managed to score 4 runs in 2 innings, one of which included a duck.

Shaw’s return to form comes at a significant time when IPL 2021 is almost upon us. His centuries have proven that he intends to cement his position in his IPL franchise and impress selectors for the coming matches.

Vijay Hazare Trophy and The 21-year-old’s return to form

Coming to the match, Mumbai lost the toss and was given the opportunity to bat first and put numbers on the board. However, to Mumbai’s dismay opener Yashasvi lost his wicket early in the game. However, Shaw continued his form and showed that the young man was capable of picking his form from the previous game.

Shaw looked in great form as he hit 17 fours and sent 7 balls out of the stadium. Thanks to his inning, Mumbai crossed the 300 run mark. The young Indian batsman scored 165 runs. The bowler of Mumbai’s team made sure they supported Shaw and bowled Karnataka out for 250 runs.

With his knock, Shaw has scored 754 runs in the tournament and has broken the record of another talented Indian opener Mayank Agarwal of having the most number of runs in the tournament in a season. Prior to Shaw, it was Mayank Agarwal who held the record in his firm grip by scoring 723 runs in the 2017-18 season of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Prithvi showed his class way early in the tournament when he scored a brilliant 185 run knock in just 123 runs against Saurashtra. Against Saurashtra Shaw remained unbeaten and had a batting strike rate of over 150. In the next game, he tormented the Puducherry bowlers and scored 227 runs unbeaten in just 152 deliveries with a strike rate of 149. He continued showing his form and played an unbeaten inning of 105 runs against Delhi with a strike rate of 117 runs.

Prithvi’s inning of 185 runs against Saurashtra was the highest score by a batsman when chasing and winning in List a tournament matches. The match was previously held by two giants of the Indian cricket team: former Indian captain MS Dhoni and the current skipper Virat Kohli. In 2005 when India was playing against Sri Lanka to chase a total of 299 runs, ‘captain cool’ MS Dhoni showed his mettle and scored 183 runs. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli scored 183 runs against Pakistan when India had to chase an intimidating total of 330 runs in the Asia Cup 2012.

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Although Shaw had an inconsistent run in the past few months, with the IPL 2020 and the India V Australia Border-Gavaskar series, it looks like Shaw has shown his intent on the field. With his performance at the Vijay Hazare Trophy, it would be interesting to see how Shaw fares at IPL 2021 slated to begin from April 9. To remind the uninitiated, Shaw is part of the Delhi Capital franchise and will play with the likes of Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ishant Sharma, Steve Smith and more.