Our disappointing performances before the Ranji Trophy hit us hard: Mumbai captain Prithvi Shaw

With giants Mumbai back in the Ranji knockouts after four years, Shaw talks about the turning point in his team’s ongoing campaign, adjusting to the revised format, and more

Barring Ajinkya Rahane, Aditya Tare and Dhawal Kulkarni, none of Mumbai’s 21 players who were selected for the Ranji Trophy’s league stage have won the title. After all, Mumbai is going through its second-longest title-drought, having last won the title in 2015-16.

Prithvi Shaw, who the selectors stuck with as captain even after Rahane was available for the league stage, sheds light on Mumbai’s league stage campaign in a chat with The Hindu.

Before coming into the tournament, we had good practice sessions. The Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy didn’t go our way but we came up with a plan and strategy after that. And with discipline, we played practice games with actual plans to be implemented in the Ranji Trophy. We just kept things simple. We didn’t want to go hard for it. We wanted to trust our process before coming to the Ranji Trophy. It was fantastic to see everyone contributing in the last month or so.

We were quite hit by what happened in Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy. We took that to heart. Everyone, especially me, Ajjuda, Amol sir and others in the support staff were quite disappointed with our white-ball performances. But we had certain amount of trust in the players, like we can do it in the Ranji Trophy. There’s a bunch of talented players in our team and I just told them to trust themselves. “You are in the Mumbai team because you are special, so you should believe in yourself. You’ll need those attributes while playing the Ranji Trophy. It’s no mean achievement to be playing for Mumbai.” That’s what I told them.

I am extremely proud to be playing for Mumbai and so is each and every player. I play for the team first and then for myself, be it a practice game or a Ranji or IPL or international. The format doesn’t matter, I believe giving your best for the team is the most important aspect. I believe that being a team man is the key. As a captain and a leader, I believe the kind of ability they have, it was great to see them showing those skills. It was great to see them doing it for the team, showing their skills, heart and emotions for the team. We trusted each other. That was the key.

Definitely it was disappointing. It was a very good game, they are a very good team. We almost had the game but… it happens in cricket. We had the belief that if we could win against Goa and Odisha, we will still go through. With only one team moving ahead, there was hardly any room for a mistake. We just believed in ourselves and trusted ourselves to execute all the plans we had tried out in the nets. That’s why we are here.

Obviously everyone was disappointed. It reminded us that the game isn’t over unless the last wicket falls or the last run is scored. I won’t say we were overconfident but we did relax a little bit. I said, “There’s no room to assume that it’s just a matter of time and wait for things to happen.” This is cricket. I get scared with it. The moment you take things lightly, the game will hit you hard. That’s what I spoke about during the team meeting.