File photo of Mumbai cricketer Shardul Thakur. Discarded Indian all-rounder Shardul Thakur on Friday has the worst bowling figures in the history of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Shardul Thakur conceded 69 for 1 in against Kerala, which is the joint expensive over. Shardul joins Ramesh Rahul of Arunachal Pradesh leaked 69 runs against Haryana, a couple of days ago. The previous record was held by Hyderabad’s Pagadala Naidu (1/67) against Mumbai in 2010.
Shardul, who is making a comeback from the injury also remained unsold in the recently-concluded IPL mega auction.
Shardul’s performances have declined over the last three seasons. For Chennai Super Kings in the 2024 season in nine games, Shardul just picked up five wickets at an average of 61.80 from nine games. While the economy has not been his greatest strength, nack of picking wickets and breaking crucial partnerships was his forte when he was at the peak of his powers.
Shardul Thakur’s all-round heroics powered Mumbai into the Ranji Trophy final.
However, in the last few years the wicket-returns too started to diminish and with the impact player rule his batting ability down the order seems to be not much of use when a team can field a specialist finisher in the role.
Ahead of flying out to Perth, Team India head coach, Gautam Gambhir, had mentioned that the management has moved on from Shardul Thakur, one of India’s heroes from the last triumphant Border-Gavaskar Trophy team in Australia. “The decision to pick Reddy (Nitish) ahead of Shardul is also about moving forward,” Gambhir had said.
Mumbai: Mumbai’s batter Shardul Thakur celebrates his half century during the first day of the Ranji Trophy final cricket match, at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (PTI Photo/Shashank Parade)
However, the 33-year-old has not given up on making a comeback into the Indian cricket team.
I haven’t had any communication yet,” he told reporters when asked about his snub from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“I have just returned from surgery, so it’s obvious that’s the reason I am not in the team at the moment,” he said.
“However, my fitness is in great shape now, and since the Australia tour is a long one, opportunities can come anytime. Following that, the England team is also coming to India for white-ball matches, then there’s the Champions Trophy, so there’s a lot of cricket ahead. So, there will surely be chances somewhere down the line.”
Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.
3 min read
