'Can’t Babysit Anyone': Shreyas Iyer's Blunt Message To Prithvi Shaw After Mumbai's SMAT 2024 Win

Prithvi Shaw, who had started with a Test hundred on debut as a teenager, is standing at the crossroads of his career at 25.

Mumbai captain Shreyas Iyer feels Prithvi Shaw is a "god-gifted player" but the talented batter needs to "improve his work ethics" if he wants to return back to his best. Shreyas' comments came after he led Mumbai to Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 title win on Sunday in Bengaluru.

Notably, Shaw, who had started with a Test hundred on debut as a teenager, is standing at the crossroads of his career at 25. He went unsold at the IPL 2025 mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The right-handed batter was also dropped from the Mumbai side during the first leg of the Ranji Trophy because of fitness issues and he later returned to the T20 side.

During the victorious 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) campaign, where Mumbai beat Madhya Pradesh in the final, Shaw batted in all of Mumbai's nine games. He scored 197 runs at an average of 21.88 and a strike rate of 156.34 but couldn’t hit a single half-century.

"I think, personally, he is a God gifted player. The amount of talent he possesses as an individual, no one has it. It's just that he needs to improve his work ethics. He needs to get his work ethics right. And if he does that, sky's the limit for him," Shreyas told reporters after Mumbai's SMAT win.

The 30-year-old Iyer said that "no one can force" Shaw to do anything and he will get the answer by himself.

"We can't babysit anyone, right? He has played so much of cricket. Everyone has given him inputs. At the end of the day, it’s his job to figure out things for himself. And he has also done it in the past. It's not that he hasn’t," the Mumbai skipper said.

"He has to focus. He has to sit back, put a thinking cap on. He will get the answer by himself. No one can force him to do anything," he added.