Shaw felt that looking too far ahead did not work for him and now, he is trying to stay in the present. “Whatever I have in my schedule, when I’m playing a match or when I’m not playing matches, I’m focusing day by day. I don’t want to see what happens after a month or two days. I try to be in the present. I’m that kind of a person right now,” said Shaw. “My coach is Prashant Shetty with whom I’ve been working with and my trainers and my dietitians and everyone. So, there’s a lot of support behind me,” he added.
On the fact that other players did not keep in touch during his tough times, Shaw said it is not new for him. “I mean, it’s fine. I don’t want anyone’s sympathy. I’ve seen this before as well. I’ve got my family support. And my friends who were there with me when I was not really well, mentally as well. So, it’s okay. Obviously, people are busy doing their work. And they have their family as well. So, it didn’t bother me at all. Because I had my dad, my family at my place. I was chilling with them and then I was practicing. I was in that zone where I’m doing everything alone. And it was really good for me. It was working for me,” he said.
On Tuesday, Shaw played a compact innings, initially almost scoring at run-a-ball. Later, he toned down his game a bit and was able to pace his innings well, This was in stark contrast to the times he used to play aggressively. “Shot selection, I feel it depended on the scoreboard. Obviously, we were four wickets down in 70. We had a good opening partnership but when the wickets were falling, I had to be patient enough to take the game away from them (Chattisgarh), which I was trying my best. The wicket was obviously good for spinners, it is turning, bouncing and a lot of patches on the wicket. I tried my best to be over there and try to put some runs on the board,” he signed off.
