While Australia are still in the driver’s seat in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship Final (WTC Final), Shardul Thakur is confident about Team India’s chances.
Australia were firmly on top of the proceedings for the first two days of the Test after outplaying India with both bat and ball. Asked to bat first, the Aussies piled up 469 runs in their first innings thanks to centuries from Travis Head and Steve Smith.
With the ball, they had India reeling at 142 for 5 on day 2. India were staring down the barrel when day 3 began and needed to come up with something special to avoid conceding a huge lead as well as the follow-on mark. India could add only 1 run to their overnight score before losing the wicket of KS Bharat. But before Australia could make further inroads, Shardul Thakur and Ajinkya Rahane steadied the ship.
The duo added 109 runs for the 7th wicket to help India avoid the follow-on and finish on 296. Rahane scored 89 while Thakur scored 51. The fifty was Thakur’s third in a row at the Oval.
Shardul Thakur confident of chasing down big total:
After bowling out India for 296, Australia finished day 3 on 123 for 4 to take their overall lead to 296 runs. The Pat Cummins-led side look set to post a huge total for India. Chasing a big total in the second innings is definitely one of the toughest jobs in cricket but Shardul Thakur is not worried about it.
Speaking after the third day’s play, the seam-bowling allrounder said that even 450 runs can be chased down on the back of one good partnership.
“Well, cricket is a funny game. You can never say what is the right total and this one-off game, especially ICC finals, you never know, I mean, who can handle the pressure better out there, one good partnership when you can even chase down 450 or maybe more than that,” said Shardul Thakur.
“Last year England chased 400 here and they did not lose too many wickets. So that’s a positive sign for us. Whatever they put up on the board, it’s too early to make any predictions. We see a lot of times in Test cricket that game changes within an hour. So yes, we like to be optimistic tomorrow going on the field. And yeah, we’ll take it on from there,” he added.
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