Former Indian skipper,  Mohammad Azharuddin reckons that the young opener, Prithvi Shaw has the talent to become a great batsman but gave crucial advice to the youngster. Shaw has struggled with the bat in the Adelaide Test as he managed to score a second-ball duck in the 1st innings and survived just four deliveries in the 2nd innings.

Azharuddin has emphasized that an opener requires to prolong the stay ay the crease which requires a defense. He also acknowledged the challenges of playing the pink ball. During a chat with Sportstar, Azharuddin said, “No matter how great a batsman you are, as an opener, you have to have a solid defense, while facing quality Australian bowlers.”

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He further elaborated, “He has enormous talent but his game is free-flowing, and there will be days when he can rip apart opponents. But that won’t happen every day. As an opener, the basic job is to take the shine off the new ball. Even if you don’t score too many runs, it is important that you be patient and try to stay at the crease for long. That way, you gain confidence and once you are settled, you can play your strokes. That’s how you score runs.”

Talking about the art of opening the batting in international cricket, Mohammad Azharuddin said, “You cannot be impatient at the highest level. I hope that somebody in the team management tells him that he needs to tighten his defence. You can’t play a similar attacking game that you played against the West Indies two years ago, because you are playing pink ball after a long time, so it is anyway challenging. So you need to focus.”

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Currently, India is on the verge of losing the Adelaide Test as they were bundled out of a meager score of 36 (their lowest in the longest format) as Australia require just 90 runs to win the match.