Waist size doesn't determine cricket fitness: Gavaskar on Shaw's omission

Batter Prithvi Shaw was dropped from the Mumbai squad for the third round of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 against Tripura to regain fitness, as his body allegedly contained 35% body fat. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) hence reportedly directed him to undergo a rigorous two-week training programme prepared by the MCA trainers.

Shaw managed just 59 runs in the two Ranji Trophy matches after starting out the season with 76 in the Irani Cup tie against Rest of India (RoI) in Lucknow.

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar, however, has now come out in support of Shaw, saying that the size of an individual's waist does not determine fitness. 

“There have been mixed reports about his omission from the Ranji team. If it’s about his attitude, approach and discipline, then it’s understandable, but hopefully it is nothing to do with his weight as one report seems to have suggested,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.

“That report suggested that he had 35 per cent more body fat. We have seen in the previous Test in Bengaluru how another player, Sarfaraz Khan, whose weight and shape have also been discussed in the public domain, played a scintillating innings of 150, showing that it is not the shape or the size of your waist that determines cricket fitness.

“It’s whether you can score 150-plus runs and that too bat for a whole day or bowl 20-plus overs in a day. That should be the only criteria of a player’s fitness. By the way, how many players with zero per cent or minimal body fat have scored 379 like Prithvi Shaw? I rest my case about fitness," the legendary Indian opener added.

Shaw played the last of his five Tests in 2020 against Australia in Adelaide. He has also played seven limited-overs fixtures for India.

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