Pritvi Shaw has played in just five tests, scoring 339 runs including a century and two fifties at an average of 42.37. The Indian opener has played in three ODIs and his 54 T20 appearances have yielded 11 half centuries at an average of 24.18 and a good strike rate of 148.57.
Not bad for someone who’s just over 21 years of age. He failed in Australia last year and before that had been dropped by the Delhi Capitals towards the end of the 2020 IPL tournament, averaging just 18 over13 games.
He’s young. These de-selections are not unusual therefore. Shaw did a bit of justice to the faith placed in him by selectors and the talent he obviously possesses when he shattered multiple records and helped Mumbai win the Vijay Hazare Trophy in early March. He’s started the 2021 IPL with a bang (of sorts).
Maybe he’s turned a corner. Maybe he has not. We have to wait. He’s just 21, as mentioned above.
This is not about Shaw though. This is not about the Delhi Capitals batting coach Praveen Amre, who has been working on Shaw’s technique and attitude of late, in addition to being mentor to the youngster for quite a while now. It’s about something Shaw said about Amre (see Nagraj Gollapudi's article ‘Five days that lifted Pritvi Shaw from out of his rut.’):
‘He agreed that he had to work on his batting. He wanted to improve. I showed him the mirror. I told him: Where are you right now? You have been dropped from the Test team. You did not even have a par performance last IPL. You have just experienced failure, so how are you going to bounce back? The one thing that is in your [favour] is you are 21 years old.’
Mirror. That’s the keyword here.
There’s no magic in this of course. Take any sport and given the technology available it’s easy for any sportsman/woman to see what he/she has done in a particular encounter, a series of matches or, if you want to get down to the details, against a particular opponent.
You can use the particular data base to pin it down to particular moments. If there are many such moments then we say ‘typical’ or ‘habit.’ A frame by frame approach obviously helps. A chess player for example might be found to make positional errors say between moves 15 and 20 or become unimaginative in certain kinds of positions. That’s how one identifies weaknesses or bad habits.
These are easily identified. It’s not hard for a coach to show these to the particular player. What the camera, so to speak, does not always capture is the attitude/approach. It’s one thing to identify it and quite another to ‘show it’. Certain things simply can’t be ‘replayed.’
Amre, according to Gollapudi, has stated some known facts. Maybe the tone used, the nature of his relationship with Shaw and Shaw’s respect for Amre may have made a difference. Sometimes we know what’s wrong, but sometimes we need someone else to tell us that in a particular kind of way. A wall has to be broken down and some walls just cannot be brought down by a battering ram.
So it’s a different kind of mirror that has to be used; hence the qualifier 'magical.' And sometimes it matters who is holding the mirror and at what angle it is held, for every player is unique and what works for one may not work for another.
A good coach can fix a technical error. A great coach will fix the technical error and the flaws of the mind, the approach and the attitude.
Shaw had a good first game in IPL 2021. He’s just 21. Amre’s work might not be over. Let’s watch.
Other articles in the series titled 'The Interception' [published in 'The Morning']
Do you have a plan? Strengths and weaknesses It's all about partnerships
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