‘Fitness is about performance, not body weight’: Sunil Gavaskar defends Prithvi Shaw, citing Sarfaraz Khan’s example | Cricket News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Top order batter Prithvi Shaw, who was excluded from the Mumbai squad for the ongoing Ranji Trophy match against Tripura owing to fitness and disciplinary issues, found some words of solace from none other than the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.
The right-handed opening batter, who has represented India in five Tests, six ODIs, and one T20I, appears to have encountered some difficulties. Sources indicate that the 24-year-old has been irregular in attending the team’s training sessions and has also been observed as being “a little overweight.”
“Speaking of domestic matches, defending Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai have dropped Prithvi Shaw from their team that is currently in Tripura. 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 has nothing to do with his weight, as one report seems to have suggested. That report suggested that he had 35 per cent more body fat,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.

Gavaskar also emphasized that physical appearance, such as weight or body shape, should not be the primary measure of a player’s fitness in cricket. He cites examples of Sarfaraz Khan, who, despite public scrutiny over his physique, scored a brilliant 150 against New Zealand.
“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,” added Gavaskar.