Prithvi Shaw will play his domestic cricket for Maharashtra from next season, ending a long, sometimes turbulent stint with Mumbai. The opener received a No-Objection Certificate from the Mumbai Cricket Association in late June and wrapped up the move over the weekend.
“At this stage of my career, I believe joining the Maharashtra team will help me grow further as a cricket,” Shaw said in a statement. “I am deeply grateful to the Mumbai Cricket Association for the opportunities and support I have received over the years.”
Maharashtra Cricket president Rohit Pawar welcomed the switch, pointing to Shaw’s Test caps and IPL know-how. The squad, he promised, will stand “firmly behind Prithvi in his new journey” over the coming seasons.
A glance at the records shows Shaw still scores heavily when fit and focused. He has 4,556 first-class runs at an average a shade over 46, 3,399 List-A runs at 55.72 and a career T20 strike-rate of 151.54. Yet form and fitness dipped last term. Mumbai left him out of the Ranji Trophy XI, citing conditioning concerns, and no franchise raised a paddle for him at the 2025 IPL auction.
Maharashtra, led by India batter Ruturaj Gaikwad, could use the injection of top-order punch. They won just two of seven Ranji games last winter and exited early in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s. The Vijay Hazare one-day run was better—group winners, semi-finals—but runs at the top remain a need.
What might change this time? For a start, Shaw gets a new dressing-room and a slightly quieter spotlight. A flatter trajectory, perhaps, to rebuild rhythm. Former India seamer and current Maharashtra consultant Abhishek Nayar believes the move “could free him up to think only about batting”. There’s also the lure of an India recall; selectors have shown they will revisit players who pile up domestic numbers.
Still, a fresh badge alone won’t fix everything. Shaw turns 26 during the season and, by modern standards, that’s no longer the kid with the schoolboy hundred at Lord’s. The technical gifts remain, the question is stamina—mental and physical—across a grind of red-ball and white-ball fixtures.
Small margins, then. A fitter Shaw raises Maharashtra’s ceiling; a repeat of last year’s struggles leaves both parties frustrated. For now, though, player and state association sound optimistic, and that’s a decent place to start.
