Prithvi Shaw back on track! Know all other 'youngest' records of his career so far

By hitting Mohammed Siraj for a boundary in the game against Virat Kohli’s upbeat Bangalore, Delhi opening batsman Prithvi Shaw became the second-youngest player to aggregate 1,000 runs in the Indian T20 League on Tuesday, April 27. This is only the latest of the landmarks in the right hander’s cricket career which has been rather rocky from the past year.

Prithvi Shaw, one of the latest graduates from the Mumbai school of batting, started his record-breaking journey at 14. Four days after Sachin Tendulkar retired from international cricket in 2013, Shaw racked up a record 546 runs off 330 balls in a Harris Shield match.

In doing so, Prithvi Shaw registered the highest score by an Indian batsman in minor cricket, later bettered by Pranav Dhanawade, who smashed 1,009 runs against Arya Gurukul. Dhanawade’s inning continues to remain a world-record in school cricket.

Moving forward, Prithvi Shaw would score centuries on his Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy debuts. At 17 years and 57 days, Shaw was the second-youngest to hit a ton on Ranji debut - after Sachin Tendulkar in 1988/99 - and later became the youngest to score a fifty in a Ranji Trophy final.

Prithvi Shaw continued breaking records in the 2017 Duleep Trophy, by becoming the youngest to score a fifty and a century in a Duleep Trophy final.

Shaw’s arrival in the Indian T20 League

In the 2018 edition of the Indian T20 League, Prithvi Shaw became the youngest player to open the batting at 18 years and 165 days. His showing on debut was short but explosive, with 22 runs off 10 balls against Kings XI Punjab.

Four days later, Shaw would score his first fifty for Delhi in the Indian T20 League match against Kolkata and effectively become the joint-youngest player to register a 50-plus score after Sanju Samson (18 years and 169 days).

Who is the youngest Indian Test centurion on debut?

In October 2018, Prithvi Shaw saw his long-awaited dream of a senior debut fulfilled. And, he paid back the trust with a confident 134 against West Indies. Thus, at 17 years and 107 days, the Mumbai player rewrote the history books as the youngest Indian Test centurion on debut, the second-youngest Test centurion for India after Sachin Tendulkar, and the fourth-youngest Test debut to cross the three-digit mark on debut.

Prithvi Shaw became the first-ever cricketer to register a century on his Ranji, Duleep Trophy, and Test debuts.

A drop in performance levels

Between 2019 and early 2021, Prithvi Shaw’s career took a downward spiral. First, he served suspension for a doping violation and would later be dropped for the remainder of the 2020 tour of Australia due to technical difficulties while batting.

This year, Shaw became the first player to score 800 runs in a single edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. However, this wasn’t enough in his efforts to secure a return to the senior Team India squad for the ODI series against England.

Who is the youngest player to score 1,000 runs in the Indian T20 League?

Delhi captain Rishabh Pant is the youngest player to score 1,000 runs in the Indian T20 League, achieving the feat at 20 years and 218 days in the 2018 edition.

Prithvi Shaw, who required just eight runs to cross the 1000-run mark in the T20 extravaganza, made a confident start to the campaign with a 38-ball 72 against Chennai but endured a scratchy run in the next three games. In the last game, which had the first Super Over of the 2021 season, the 21-year-old hit a 39-ball 53 to see his team post a first innings score of 159/4.

Featured photo: AFP / Sajjad Hussain