After getting impressed by his work ethic, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has backed a 23-year-old star Indian batter to shine in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. The Australian, who has been associated with DC for over four years, has thrown his support behind the team’s star opening batter, Prithvi Shaw, and backed him to do well in the IPL 2023. The right-handed batter has been a regular member of DC’s playing XI ever since he made his debut during the 2018 edition. In the last five seasons, Shaw has played many match-winning knocks for his team but has lacked consistency in his performance. But Ponting feels that this year, Shaw will fire on all cylinders, and the 2023 edition is going to be his biggest season in IPL history.
Shaw isn’t a regular member of the Indian team anymore and last appeared for the Men in Blue in July 2021, but has done well in domestic cricket. Ahead of the start of the IPL 2023, Ponting stated that he believes in his abilities and has backed him to succeed by stating that we will see the real Prithvi this season.
“I think we are going to see the real Prithvi Shaw this season,” Ponting said. “He’s in a better physical shape than I’ve ever seen him before. I spoke to him the other day about his attitude, the way he’s working, and how things are going. I honestly feel that this is going to be his biggest season in the IPL. He just has that different look in his eye this year. You can see, he’s hungrier than ever,” Ponting said.
“It just seems to me that this season, something has really clicked with Prithvi. I actually said to him at the end of the training two days ago, ‘This game, if you don’t pay full attention to it, it’ll take away from you. But if you put in the hard yards, it will give back to you all the time.’ That’s why I feel that this could be a really big year for him,” he added.
The Mumbai-based cricketer, who has played at least one game in all three formats of the game for Team India, has appeared in a total of 63 IPL matches to date, in which he has scored 1588 runs at an average of 25.21. His strike rate in the cash-rich league is 147.45.
