'I don’t want anyone’s sympathy': Prithvi Shaw opens up after slamming century in Maharashtra debut

Out-of-favour India cricketer Prithvi Shaw (PTI Photo)

Prithvi Shaw led a one-man show on his debut for Maharashtra during their Buchi Babu Trophy 2025 encounter against Chhattisgarh. The out-of-favour batter scored a century before getting out for 111. His effort also rescued Maharashtra from a tricky position as the team mustered 217 in response to their opponents' 242 runs. Such an innings suggest that the 25-year-old may still go on to have a career to be proud of, despite Shaw's recent issues with discipline and fitness being a regular talking point.

“I don’t mind coming from scratch again because I’ve seen many ups and downs in my life … I’m kind of a very confident guy, confident in myself, my work ethics. I feel that this season will go really well for me as well as for my team,” said Shaw after close of second day’s play.

Shaw combined with Sachin Dhas to add 71 runs for the opening wicket, out of which the later contributed just 10. This demonstrates his usual attacking style of batting as he completed his half-century at over run-a-ball. Following that Maharashtra endure a mini-collapse, which included the wicket of comeback man Ruturaj Gaikwad - who was back but was only able to score one. But Shaw remained upbeat and persevered, making sure the deficit was managed.

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Speaking about what had changed for him to produce such a performance, Shaw insisted that rather than aiming for a dramatic shift, it was simply a matter of perfecting and correcting the minor errors. “I don’t want to change anything. I just went back to basics, doing things that I used to do in Under-19 days, which got me to the Indian team, just doing all the stuff back again,” explained the 25-year-old, who last played for India in 2021. “Practicing more, gym, running. It’s small things, obviously, it’s not that big because I’ve been doing these things since the age of 12 and 13.”

He further explained that improving his discipline involved monitoring the material he consumed, which required him to avoid social media and not let himself dwell on the negative it contains. “Just trying to be myself and not really trying to be on social media or anything and those kinds of distractions. Nowadays social media, it’s quite bad. It’s kind of peaceful when I’m not using it,” explained Shaw, who has found himself on the wrong end of critical attacks in the past.

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Shaw's response was emphatically no when asked if he had heard from any former teammates about his century and a successful start to this new era. He, however, insisted that at this point in his career, this was not something he was aiming for.

“I mean, it’s fine. I mean, I don’t want anyone’s sympathy. It’s okay. I’ve seen this before as well. I’ve got my family’s support. And my friends who were there with me when I was not really well mentally as well. So, it’s okay,” concluded the batter.