Day before hundred, Prithvi Shaw wondered: “How would my comeback journey be? Will it begin on a good note?”

The day before Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy fixture against Chhattisgarh in Raipur, Prithvi Shaw was anxious. It was his second game on comeback, after missing six months of competitive cricket due to a knee injury that he sustained during a county stint with Northamptonshire in August.

In the first outing, against Bengal, he could make only 35 runs, as his side won by an innings and four runs.

So he wondered whether he could regain the momentum of the past season, in which he had struck 595 runs at an average of 59.50, including a 383-ball 379, the second-highest Ranji Trophy score of all time. His rich vein of form across formats even paved his way back to the national team for the T20s against New Zealand last year. Now he has to rebuild his career again.

He was worried if he could bat in his swashbuckling ways. ‘I wanted to do well but somewhere I wondered whether I would be able to bat in my style or not. Kaise kheloonga (how will I play), when I would make a comeback and whether it will be on a good note or not. These were the thoughts which were going around. But after I stayed for a few hours, things became normal,’ Shaw told The Indian Express from Raipur.