Trinidad: Shardul Thakur has been a consistent member of Indian teams for the past few years despite never seeming like it. He was chosen as the fourth seamer in a Test match because the team was unable to field both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin due to the circumstances.
In the run-up to the ODI World Cup, Thakur is a contender for the No. 8 spot as he shares seam-bowling duties with Hardik Pandya and adds valuable depth to the batting order at the bottom of the order.
The 31-year-old was given the opportunity to play in every match of the ODI series against the West Indies, and India were excited to try it out. Despite having few chances to showcase his batting abilities, a haul of eight wickets at an average of 11.62 from the three games provided additional proof of his value to the team. This included a career-high 4 for 37 in the decisive game on Tuesday in Trinidad.
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Thakur accepted that it is normal for some players to be considering World Cup selection, but he is personally appreciative of the opportunities that have come his way and is not planning too far ahead. He is however conscious of his contributions." As an all-rounder who bats in the lower order, my role also becomes important. We've seen, in longer chases or if you want to post a big total, you will look to accelerate and lose one or two wickets here and there. If the No. 8 and No.9 can contribute with someone who has batted deep, that role is really important," Thakur said.
It's raining wickets here in Trinidad! ???? ????
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 1, 2023
West Indies 6 down, with Mukesh Kumar, Shardul Thakur & Jaydev Unadkat sharing the spoils ???? ????
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"Whenever I get an opportunity, I just try and contribute towards the team's success. That's my thought process - whether it's in batting, bowling or fielding. I'm not the kind of player who plays for his place in the team. If I play with that thought, I don't think I'll be able to play,".
"Even if they [team management] don't pick me for the World Cup, it will be their call, I can't do much. It will be wrong of me to think that I need to play for my place, that I'll do my job and leave. I'll have to see what the match situation is, and what the requirement of the team is whether I get personal success or not. That is one thing I keep repeating - no matter what, I'll try to play for the team and make an impact."
"I missed just one series - the home series against Sri Lanka. Not sure why I wasn't picked for that. But I've been a part of all the one-day teams in the last two years. Whenever I get a chance to play, I remind myself that the team has confidence in me, and that's why I'm a part of it. Even in this series, I got an opportunity and I could pick eight wickets."
While Thakur played in every game of the series, India was unable to use the talented legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal. The team's realization that it could only field Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav while sacrificing some of their batting depth may have contributed in part to the situation. Thakur believed that Chahal's confidence would not be significantly affected by missing out on one series of games.
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"We have a strong bench strength. So there will be a lot of times when someone won't get to play a lot of matches or series. Yuzvendra Chahal is a very good player, he has performed for many years and proved himself. Now, whether to play him or not is the management's decision. The kind of player he is, whenever we play him, he will surely perform. We've seen that whenever he plays, he picks up a lot of wickets, whether it is one-day or T20. He always contributes to the team's success. So I don't think not playing one series would demoralize him. He has won several games in the past," Thakur said.
The opening pair of Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill, who put on a 143-run opening stand to set up India's mammoth total of 351, as well as seamer Mukesh Kumar, whose three early wickets broke the back of West Indies' chase, also received praise from the seam bowler.
"Even in the previous game, we as a group had decided to bat first and challenge ourselves to defend that score, although we didn't get the kind of result we wanted with our batting," Thakur said. "But in this game, we scored a lot of runs. There was a bit of assistance [for the bowlers] early on when we batted Ishan and Shubman batted really well and gave us a strong start. That's why we could post a big total.
"When we came on to bowl, we thought West Indies would give a strong reply but Mukesh bowled a fine spell with the new ball. The little help that was on offer from the pitch, he managed to extract that. He bowled in the right areas. The first three wickets were really important. Even after that, Kuldeep, I and the rest of the bowling unit contributed really well. Even though we picked three early wickets, our focus was to keep the pressure on even after that. That was the plan."
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