Duleep Trophy: Amit Dani sees tournament as comeback opportunity for Prithvi Shaw

Prithvi Shaw

Former Mumbai and Goa all-rounder Amit Dani, who, on Wednesday was named coach of the West Zone team for the upcoming Duleep Trophy, beginning on August 23 in Bengaluru, believes the zonal competition is the perfect platform for opener Prithvi Shaw to chart his India comeback.

Former Mumbai opener Shaw, 26, who has played five Tests, six ODIs and one T20I, moved to Maharashtra last season, where he scored 537 runs in the Ranji Trophy.

"This is a huge opportunity for Prithvi to make a comeback in the national team, and I hope he can cash on it. He's such an explosive batter. He needs to focus on performing consistently and help the team win matches. A good performance will benefit him individually as well as the West Zone team," Dani told mid-day on Wednesday.

Amit Dani

The Maharashtra batter Ruturaj Gaikwad-led West Zone will begin their Duleep Trophy campaign against North Zone in the quarter-final at Bengaluru on August 23.

Dani was Mumbai's assistant coach when Shaw played a key role in helping the Shreyas Iyer-led Mumbai team win the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2018. He believes Shaw can do it again. "Vinayak Samant was the coach in 2018-19 and I was assisting. Prithvi was in that team and he batted really well [he scored 356 runs with the help of one century and three half-centuries] and helped us win the Vijay Hazare Trophy that year. So, I'm hoping Prithvi can repeat that performance this time," added Dani, who considers this a crucial assignment for himself too.

"I have played the Deodhar Trophy [50-over games], but not Duleep Trophy [four-day games], so this is a great opportunity for me and also a challenging one. I believe this team is ready; our aim is to win the Duleep Trophy," he said, adding that having six experienced Mumbai players - Shardul Thakur, Sarfaraz Khan, Tushar Deshpande, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian and Musheer Khan - within the team is a massive advantage.

[popcorn number="5093" desc="No. of first-class runs scored by Prithvi Shaw in 65 matches @ 46.30" class="Default"]

[popcorn number="537" desc="No. of runs scored by Prithvi Shaw for Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy last season" class="Default"]