IPL 2022: I want to turn Prithvi Shaw into a player who plays 100 Test matches for India – Ricky Ponting

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has revealed that his aim is to turn Prithvi Shaw into a player who plays 100 Test matches for India. Ponting reckons Shaw has the same talent like him and he can go a long way in his career.

Shaw has impressed in his young career but a lot of cricket boffins reckon he still has a lot of work to do in the red-ball version.

Shaw was dropped from the Indian Test squad after he failed to get going against Australia in the pink ball Test match in the 2020-21 series. The 22-year old youngster hasn’t represented the national team as players like Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are currently the first-choice openers while Shubman Gill and Mayank Aggarwal are waiting in the wings.

Meanwhile, Shaw is well known to play aggressively at the top of the order and he is in good form in the ongoing IPL 2022. The stylish right-hander has scored 160 runs in four matches for DC at an average of 40 and a strike rate of 170.21. Shaw scored back-to-back fifties against Kolkata Knight Riders and Lucknow Super Giants as he contributed 61 and 51 respectively.

On the other hand, Shaw has played five Test matches for India in which he has scored 339 runs at an average of 42.38. The right-hander had made his Test debut against West Indies in 2018 and had scored a fine knock of 134 runs in his maiden innings.

Ricky Ponting had earlier coached Mumbai Indians and a lot of players from MI have gone on to play for India. Ponting wants to do the same thing while coaching Delhi Capitals.

“If I look Prithvi play, he has got every bit as much talent as I had if not more, and I want to be able to turn him into a player that plays over a 100 Test matches for India and represents his country as much as possible. If I look back through the teams that I’ve been around, when I took over Mumbai Indians, Rohit was very young, Hardik Pandya hadn’t played, Krunal hadn’t played. A lot of the guys that I have coached there have gone on to play cricket for India and that’s what I want to do here,” Ponting said during a podcast with Delhi Capitals.

Delhi Capitals have played four matches out of which they won two and lost as many. DC will next face Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.