Mohammad Kaif Reveals He Had Asked Prithvi Shaw To Work On His Fitness During The IPL

Young Indian opener Prithvi Shaw is going through a horror run currently. Not only is the preciously talented batsman able to score any runs but his technique, more specifically his footwork, and also his fitness has come under the spotlight.

Shaw endured a horror Test match against Australia at the Adelaide Oval where he was knocked over by Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in a similar manner. Not only that, but the young Mumbai batsman also endured a horror time in the field as he dropped a straight-forward chance of Marnus Labuschagne.’

Amid all this, Mohammad Kaif, someone who has observed Prithvi Shaw from close quarters in his capacity as Delhi Capitals assistant coach, has revealed that he had asked Shaw t work on his fitness during a one-on-one conversation in the recently concluded IPL.

”Coming to fitness, when the IPL final happened I had taken him aside. I am such a coach who does not disturb the player much, we also get evolved along with the player’s planning and thinking.” Mohammad Kaif said on Sony Sports.

“When you are scoring runs, you can spend less time at the net, take breaks and do your recovery. But when a player is out of form, he is not scoring runs, then whether he is Sachin or Dravid, we all spend extra time in the nets and make the nets difficult. You play against the new ball, call the bowlers to bowl to you at the nets. I told Prithvi Shaw that when you pay attention to your fitness, take extra catches, do the extra batting, running and do training in the gym, you also train your mind.” he added

“Virat Kohli is the biggest example of that. You train your mind with the fitness work you do. When you are in a difficult phase, when you are out of form, apart from technique if you are mentally strong it helps you to come out of that phase.” Kaif said.

When asked about Prithvi’s struggles in Australia, Mohammad Kaif said that given the fact the young opener has never played such high-quality fast bowling coupled with the pink ball jagging around in difficult conditions, his failure was on expected terms.

“Your technique definitely helps you to play the good balls. You don’t get to play the moving balls in India which Prithvi Shaw is facing from Starc or Cummins. They are the world’s best bowlers who bowl at a speed of 145 kph. This was the first time Shaw has played a pink-ball Test match and it is on Australian soil. So that difficulty was bound to come.” Mohammad Kaif added.

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