India has a lot of positives to take from the T20I and ODI series against the West Indies. Though India was playing without Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, the youngsters managed to take the team to the victory. One of the players that caught the eye was Shardul Thakur, who had a significant contribution to the decider match of the ODI series.
Shardul Thakur’s contribution in two ODIs against West Indies
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was resurfaced with an old injury ahead of the ODI series which gave a chance to fortunate Shardul Thakur. He replaced Shivam Dube from the playing XI in the second ODI at Visakhapatnam. Thakur bowled eight overs and picked one wicket of Caribbean. India went on to win the second game, levelling the series with 1-1
His major contribution was in the decider match of the series. In the third ODI, he picked the wicket of Nicholas Pooran who was the set batsman. The visitors set the target of 316 runs.
KL Rahul (77) and Rohit Sharma (63) gave a good start to the team. The duty to take the game forward came on the shoulders of Virat Kohli who unfortunately lost his wicket before taking the game to the finishing line. However, Ravindra Jadeja and Thakur didn’t let the captain’s effort into vain. Shardul Thakur struck 2 fours and a maximum taking off the pressure from Jadeja’s shoulder. His 17* runs (6 balls) contribution was crucial in taking the team to victory.
“When I was going out to bat, Ravi (Shastri) sir told me to take the responsibility and finish the game. He said I have the talent to do it. When I was entering the ground, Virat said it would be better to take a single and give the strike to Jaddu (Jadeja). But fortunately for me, I connected the first ball from the middle of the bat. Jaddu had told me that since the dew had settled, the ball was coming on to the bat nicely. After I hit the first-ball four, the pressure on Jadeja also came down, since the asking rate reduced a bit,” Thakur said.
Shardul Thakur View On Getting His chance
Shardul Thakur is happy to perform for India and being a part of the winning cause. He believes that it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to reach new heights.
“Positive thing is that I was part of the winning cause. Hopefully, I will get more chances in the future. Every cricketer waits for a day like this. This doesn’t happen overnight, a lot of hard work goes into this. This time it was batting, I hope next time it is bowling,” he said.