Dinesh Lad, Rohit Sharma’s childhood coach, has claimed that Prithvi Shaw ruined his cricket career by choosing the wrong path. The fact that Shaw was left out of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy squad for the 2024–25 season has put him through one of the most difficult times of his career. After the Delhi Capitals (DC) released him, he went unsold at the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025) mega auction.
Dinesh Lad, Rohit Sharma’s childhood coach, recently reminisced about Shaw’s early days as a prodigy. Lad admitted that he had been a very good player since he was a youngster, but he had gotten off course and ruined his game.
“I have seen Prithvi since his childhood, from the time he was 10 years old. He was a highly talented player. But as I have said, everyone’s journey is individual, and I don’t know what exactly happened with him. Still, Prithvi Shaw was a very talented cricketer. Unfortunately, he went down the wrong path and ended up spoiling his cricket,” Lad said on a podcast with Gaurav Mangalani.
Prithvi Shaw made a dream debut in 2018, scoring a century in his very first Test against the West Indies in Rajkot. But despite that blazing start, his career failed to gather momentum, and after a handful of sporadic appearances in all formats, he was dropped from the team in 2022.
Lad also drew comparisons between Shaw and emerging talents like Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre, describing the latter duo as the future of Indian cricket.
“Even now, I feel there should be a batter like him, the way he used to bat. Although right now we have some truly outstanding batters. For example, the way Vaibhav Suryavanshi is batting, and the way Ayush Mhatre is batting. These are future cricketers in the making. They are getting ready in line. Indian cricket is almost at the top,” he added.
In the meantime, Prithvi Shaw left Mumbai to join Maharashtra for the domestic 2025–2026 season. After the opener’s June 2025 plea for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Mumbai Cricket Association was granted by the board, his eight-year stint with Mumbai came to an end.
He was left out of Mumbai’s squad for the latter half of the 2024–25 Ranji Trophy owing to poor form and disciplinary issues. While he did play in last season’s Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, he was once again ignored for the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day competition.
