India star Shreyas Iyer heaped praise on batter Prithvi Shaw for being 'God-gifted' and possessing the amount of talent which no one has, but made a point that he needs to improve his work ethics. Shaw, who led India to the U19 ODI World Cup win in 2018, has impressed the cricket pundits and fans with his talent and skills in his initial days but has found it hard to create any major impact after that.
Shaw has gone down the pecking order now. In October 2024, he was dropped from Mumbai's Ranji Trophy squad due to fitness and disciplinary issues. The 25-year-old was released by the Delhi Capitals ahead of the 2025 mega auction and found no takers in the bidding war last month.
Shreyas Iyer, who recently led Mumbai to their fourth Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title with a win over Madhya Pradesh has opened up on Shaw. "I think, personally, he is a God-gifted player. The amount of talent he possesses as an individual, no one has it. That's true. It's just that he needs to improve his work ethics," Iyer said after Mumbai's win over MP in the SMAT final on Sunday.
He said that if Shaw improves his ethics, there is no limit to what he can do. "And I have said it before as well in many of the interviews. He needs to get his work ethics right. And if he does that, you know, sky is the limit for him. Can you force him to? I can't force him. He has played so much cricket. And everyone has given him inputs. At the end of the day, it's his job to go out there and figure out things for himself," he added.
"We can't babysit anyone, right? Every professional who is playing at this level, they need to know what they should be doing. And he has also done it in the past. It's not that he hasn't. He has to focus. He has to sit back, put a thinking cap on and then figure out himself. He will get the answer. No one can force him to do anything," the batter said.
Shaw was also part of the winning Mumbai team but barring one, he had not produced notable performances. He made 197 runs in nine SMAT games at an average of 21.88 with a 26-ball 49-run knock being the only saving grace.
