Prithvi Shaw: 'I needed a break to make myself mentally strong'

Back with Delhi Capitals after going unsold at the IPL 2025 auction, Shaw will compete with Nissanka and Porel to open alongside Rahul

ESPNcricinfo staff

Published: Mar 25, 2026, 3:43 PM (3 hrs ago)

Prithvi Shaw is back at Delhi Capitals (DC) after going unsold at the IPL 2025 auction. He wasn't among the runs for DC in 2023 and 2024 - he scored just 304 in 16 innings across two seasons - but ahead of IPL 2026, he said the break helped him get fresher and stronger.

"I enjoyed my life a lot. I went to a couple of destinations to refresh my mind a little," Shaw said. "Then I came back [and followed] the same routine: I practised, worked hard. Whether it was training or batting, what I used to do, I started doing three times. And I think it was a good break for me. I can't say that I took a step back. I needed that break to make myself mentally strong."

Shaw was dropped by DC midway through IPL 2024 and was then dropped by his domestic side Mumbai during the 2024-25 season, with his Mumbai team-mate Shreyas Iyer saying Shaw needed to "get his work ethics right". He eventually left Mumbai and played for Maharashtra in the recent domestic season.

Related

IPL 2026: DC aim for playoffs with mix of old, new faces

Starc resumes bowling, Axar hopes for quick clearance from CA

Chappell to Shaw: 'Visualise the cricketer you want to become'

"I am a human being; I will make mistakes," Shaw said. "Obviously, whatever is written or spoken out there, they know only half of it. My family knows me… My friends know in and out about me. In social media or in the papers, whenever good or bad things used to come [about me], I was very young [to understand them], obviously. Everytime you see [such stuff], you come [back for more]. So I stopped seeing them.

"Those things were used to keep me away from all these things [related to cricket]. I had belief in myself. Because I know where I have come from, how hard I have worked. Mistakes are made by humans… It's okay, move ahead. All that is history, and it happened many years ago... I feel [now] is the time when mentally I get a lot of happiness to come to the ground."

At DC, Shaw will compete with Pathum Nissanka and Abishek Porel to partner KL Rahul at the top of the order. DC, who had last made the playoffs in 2021, will start their 2026 campaign against Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow on April 1.

Click here to read article