Delhi Capitals (DC) opening batsman Prithvi Shaw welcomed head coach Ricky Ponting, who joined the team after completing his mandatory quarantine. "The boss is back," Shaw said. DC posted a video on social media where Shaw is seen speaking about the upcoming IPL season and re-uniting with coach Ponting. "He is a very nice person. On the field he is like a boss, off the field he is like a friend. So, I am very happy he is back." Shaw likened Ponting's speeches at team huddles to those in the film 'Chak De! India' by actor Shah Rukh Khan. "I think when Ricky sir speaks, that song (Chak De! India) should play in the background. Shah Rukh Khan's song," said Shaw.
Shaw comes into the IPL on the back of a record-breaking performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He scored 827 runs from just eight matches - the most in a single season of the tournament by any batsman – going past Mayank Agarwal on the way.
However, Shaw's form had dipped during IPL 2020 and he was dropped from the DC XI during the tournament. He also lost his place in the Indian Test team after being dropped from the playing XI during the tour of Australia that followed the IPL.
Ponting reflected on Shaw's poor run last IPL season and said the 21-year-old had refused to bat in the nets when not scoring runs in matches.
"I've had some really interesting chats with him through last year's IPL, just trying to break him down, trying to find out exactly what was the right way to coach him and how I was going to get the best out of him," Ponting told cricket.com.au.
"But he had an interesting theory on his batting last year - when he's not scoring runs, he won't bat, and when he is scoring runs, he wants to keep batting all the time.
"He had four or five games where he made under 10 and I'm telling him, 'We have to go to the nets and work out (what's wrong)', and he looked me in the eye and said, 'No, I'm not batting today'. I couldn't really work that out."