Prithvi Shaw vs Shubman Gill: Which 19-year-old is better?
Widely considered to be the future stars of Indian cricket, Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill are two very promising young talents. Both of them have been in tremendous form since their debut in domestic cricket. The duo played a crucial role in India U19's victory in the U19 World Cup 2018.
Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill are two very different kinds of batsmen. Their style of play is very contrasting. But there is one similarity between these two - their hunger to score runs.
Since the U-19 World Cup 2018, a single question has always been persistent in every cricket fan's mind: who is better - Prithvi Shaw or Shubman Gill?
Here, we will compare these two on the basis of their career stats to find out who is better at the age of 19.
Prithvi Shaw
An extremely skillful batsman from Mumbai, Prithvi Shaw made the headlines for the first time at the very young age of 14 when he scored 546 off 330 balls with the help of 85 fours and 5 sixes, for his school Rizvi Springfield in the Harris Shield tournament in 2013.
The teenager hit centuries on his debut in Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy, making him only the second player to do so after Sachin Tendulkar. Later, he led the India U19 team to the World Cup title in 2018.
Impressed by his performance in U19 World Cup 2018, the Delhi Capitals bought him for INR 1.2 crore at IPL auction 2018.
Because of his consistent performance for Mumbai and India A, he soon made his international debut for India in the Test series against West Indies in 2018. He had a memorable debut as he smashed a century on debut and became the youngest Indian to score a century on Test debut.
Shubman Gill
A dashing right-hand batsman from Punjab, Shubman Gill made his first-class debut in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy and scored a fifty in the match. It didn't take too long for him to score his maiden century as he crossed the 100-run mark for the first time in the following match.
The teenager shot to prominence during the U19 World Cup 2018 where he performed extremely well and was adjudged player of the tournament for his 372 runs in the tournament.
Shubman Gill was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for a hefty sum of INR 1.8 crore during the IPL auctions 2018.
The 19-year-old recently made his ODI debut for India against New Zealand but was unable to impress as he got out cheaply in the two matches that he got to play.
Statistical Comparison
A statistical comparison between these two batsmen is as follows:
Performance in U19 World Cup 2018
Both Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw got to bat in 5 matches of the tournament. Gill scored 372 runs at an astonishing average of 124.00 and an impressive strike rate of 112.38. He smashed 3 fifties and 1 century.
On the other hand, Shaw scored 261 runs from these 5 innings at an impressive average of 65.25 and strike rate of 94.56. He scored two fifties in the tournament.
From the statistics, it's clear that Shubman Gill performed better than Prithvi Shaw in the tournament.
Performance in First-class Cricket
In first-class cricket, Prithvi Shaw has scored 1767 runs from 31 innings at an excellent average of 60.93 with 188 being his highest. He has scored 8 fifties and 8 centuries in his first-class career.
Meanwhile, Shubman Gill has scored 1089 runs from 16 innings at a magnificent average of 77.78 with 268 being his highest score. He has scored 7 fifties and 3 centuries.
Gill has a better average but has played fewer innings than Prithvi Shaw.
Performance in List A cricket
The Mumbai batsman has scored 1014 runs from 25 List A innings at an average of 40.56 and an unbelievable strike rate of 116.41. He has 6 fifties and 3 centuries to his name in List A cricket.
As far as Shubman Gill's List A stats are concerned, he has scored 1545 runs from 38 innings at an imposing average of 45.44 and a decent strike rate of 85.54. He has scored 7 fifties and 4 centuries.
Clearly, Gill has better numbers than Shaw in List A matches as well.
Performance in IPL
In IPL, Shaw has scored 245 runs in 9 innings at an average of 27.22 and strike rate of 153.12 with the help of 2 fifties.
On the other hand, Gill has scored 203 runs from 11 innings at an average of 33.83 and strike rate of 146.04. He has scored just one fifty.
The former has scored more runs than the latter but the latter has a better average.
Another important aspect to take into consideration is that Gill has batted in middle order or lower middle order in most of the matches in IPL. On the contrary, Shaw has batted in the top order in all the matches.
Conclusion
An analysis of the statistics reveals that Shubman Gill has performed better than Prithvi Shaw across all formats till date.
All in all, both the batsmen are supremely talented and have their own qualities. Indian cricket is very fortunate to have these world-class batsmen. This is a very early stage in their career and they have a long way to go.
The rest of us can only wait and watch.