India U-19 World Cup-winning captain –Prithvi Shaw said that Coach Rahul Dravid’s suggestion helped the team a lot in winning the 2018 World Cup in New Zealand.

He went to further reveal that the legendary Indian batsman shared his playing experiences in New Zealand which helped them to adopt the conditions and played a key role in their successful World Cup campaign.

As per TNN, Shaw told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai, “It has been great working with him over the last two years and through this World Cup journey as well. He is The Wall after all, and has played in New Zealand so many times and got hundreds there. So, we had the opportunity to ask him about the weather conditions and the wickets. He shared his playing experiences from there and because of those small things we could pick up from that, we got the World Cup.”

Having been played as an opener for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy, and then in World Cup for India, Shaw has played a couple of matches for his state team at No. 3 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018, Group C, in Chennai, but the 18-year-old preferred to open the batting.  

On being asked did he find things very different during those knocks, he noted, “Opening the batting is a bit different. As an opener, you have to read the situation, the pitch conditions yourself. When you bat at No. 3, you sit in the dressing room and watch how the pitch behaves when the openers are out there in the middle. It is simple to read the game while opening and facing the first ball. I prefer to open.”

Shaw, who will now represent his trade for Delhi Daredevils (DD) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018, is looking forward to playing under the guidance of Aussie legend Ricky Ponting.

He signed off by saying, “For me, it will be a matter of experience. Spending one or two months around international players and the coach himself – Ricky Ponting – will be great. I have to see how much I can get out of it to put through in my game. It’s going to be fun.”