‘Shaw had 35 per cent more body fat’: Gavaskar settles ‘weight’ debate

Prithvi Shaw once again finds himself in the middle of a storm after being controversially left out from Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy Playing XI, but the Indian World Cup-winning batter has managed to find some sort of backing from none other than the legendary Sunil Gavaskar. Shaw’s snub reportedly stems from two reasons – his weight, which is believed to have exceeded 35 per cent, and incidents of indiscipline that are yet to be revealed publicly.
Gavaskar, the former India captain, however, believes that weight should not be the criteria behind a cricketer’s omission, let alone when a player is of Shaw’s calibre. He may not be in the best of forms at the moment, but this is the same player who scored a century on Test debut for India and had his moments. Being omitted on disciplinary grounds is one thing, but ‘weight and shape’ should be the last reason behind Shaw’s India snub, reckons the first man to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket.
“Speaking of domestic matches, defending Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai have dropped Prithvi Shaw from their team that is currently in Tripura. There have been mixed reports about his omission from the Ranji team. If it’s about his attitude, approach and discipline, then it’s understandable, but hopefully, it has nothing to do with his weight, as one report seems to have suggested. That report suggested that he had 35 per cent more body fat,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
Shaw’s professional career is at an all-time low. Back after a long injury layoff, Shaw has scored just one fifty-plus score from 15 innings dating back to August. His fitness and form are a concern, due to which he is likely to be released by Delhi Capitals ahead of the IPL 2025 player auction. Having last played for India in July of 2021, Shaw is nowhere in contention to playing for India anytime again.
The deal breaker behind Gavaskar’s stance has to do with what another Mumbai batter is achieving for Team India. Sarfaraz Khan, not the leanest of players around, just couple of weeks ago, sizzled for India during the first Test against New Zealand, scoring a blistering 150 in the second innings of the Bengaluru game. If Sarfaraz’s physique is not preventing Team India from giving him chances, Shaw should be given the same treatment.
“We have seen in the previous Test in Bengaluru how another player Sarfaraz Khan, whose weight and shape have also been discussed in the public domain, played a scintillating innings of 150, showing that it is not the shape or the size of your waist that determines cricket fitness. It’s whether you can score 150-plus runs and that too bat for a whole day or bowl 20-plus overs in a day. That should be the only criteria of a player’s fitness. By the way, how many players with zero per cent or minimal body fat have scored 379 like Prithvi Shaw? I rest my case about fitness,” added Gavaskar.