Prithvi Shaw remains an enigma in Indian cricket. Once hailed as the second-coming of Sachin Tendulkar, Shaw's career has derailed after only five Tests, six ODIs and one T20I for India. Recently, things have hit rock bottom, with the 25-year-old going unsold in the IPL 2025 mega auction, and also being left out of Mumbai's Vijay Hazare Trophy and Ranji Trophy squads. Punjab Kings (PBKS) star Shashank Singh, who played with Shaw for Mumbai, has elaborated on what might be going wrong for him.
Shashank name-dropped Prithvi Shaw while listing the players who he felt could go on to be great openers for India in the future. As a result, Shaw was named alongside the likes of Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Here is when Shashank was asked about Shaw's struggles.
"Prithvi Shaw is underrated. If he goes back to his basics, he can achieve anything. I know him since he was 13, since I've played club cricket with him in Bombay. If you ask me what's wrong with him, he has a different perspective on few things," Shashank said, speaking on the Shubhankar Mishra podcast.
"Maybe, he can change something about his work ethic, maybe sleep at 10 PM instead of 11 PM, maybe improve his diet," Shashank added.
"If he can accept and change some of these things, it would be the best thing for Indian cricket," Shashank said.
Shashank, however, also added that Shaw must already have people around him who are better-placed than him to advice him.
"Maybe he already is (making the changes). He does not need me to advise him. He probably already has 10 better people giving him advice," Shashank stated.
Shaw recently led the 'Route Mobile' team in the DY Patil T20 2025 tournament.
The 25-year-old had set a base price of Rs 75 lakh for the IPL 2025 mega auction, but could not find a single bid from any of the 10 teams.
On the other hand, things have been on the up for Shashank Singh. Shashank had a breakthrough season with Punjab Kings in IPL 2025, where he smashed 354 runs at a strike rate of nearly 165.
As a result, Shashank was PBKS' first retention ahead of the mega auction, being retained for Rs 5.5 crore.
Shashank's sudden rise also resulted in him being the ninth-most searched athlete on Google in 2024, with the only other Indian in the Top 10 being Hardik Pandya.
Shashank will play under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer in IPL 2025 for PBKS, as the franchise aims to win a first-ever title.