Sanjay Manjrekar doesn't want Prithvi Shaw to be burdened to score hundreds

India chased down 263 runs easily in the first ODI of the three-match series against Sri Lanka. While it was the half-centuries from Shikhar Dhawan and Ishan Kishan led the way for the visitors in the chase, it was Prithvi Shaw who started the innings in a scintillating manner. The opening batsman played sumptuous shots to race away to 43 off 24 balls.

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When it felt as if he will easily score a big knock, Shaw threw it away playing one in the air off Dhananjaya de Silva in the sixth over of the innings. While many criticised him for playing the rash shot to get out, Sanjay Manjrekar is of the opinion that the youngster shouldn't be burdened and let him play the way he does.

Manjrekar stated that it is a tendency in India to put pressure on the youngster to score big hundreds. But according to him what Shaw did in the first ODI was nothing less than a match-winning knock in a tricky chase.

"I hope we don’t, typically like we do in India, put pressure on a young player, saying he has got to get a hundred. That 40 (43) he got today put India in a winning position after that; India wasn’t going to lose even if they tried," he said in the post-match show on Sony Sports.

Sanjay Manjrekar also went on to say that Prithvi Shaw will learn to get big hundreds as he plays more cricket but winning is the important part of the game and his knock did it for India on the day.

"Eventually, he will start getting the big scores, but I don’t think the pressure should be put on him straight away that he has got to convert his starts into hundreds. Getting a hundred in ODI cricket, if you’re a good player batting at the top, you get hundreds. But winning is important," Manjrekar added.