Shardul Thakur loves challenges

Thakur’s four wicket haul was instrumental in India restricting Sri Lanka to a moderate 152 and he was rightly awarded the Man-ofthe-Match award after his team’s six-wicket win in the third round robin match of the Nidahas T20 Tri Series. 

Asked about the challenge of being a back-up pacer, the Mumbai speedster replied: “I have told one thing before: I love challenges. I am taking it as a challenge.” 

“If other senior bowlers are missing from the team, then I have to step up. I have done this previously for other teams that I have played for. I have come in place of Zaheer Khan, Dhawal Kulkarni and Ajit Agarkar while playing for Mumbai (in Ranji Trophy). I had to step up in that role. When senior bowlers are rested, I have to step up and fill that role to lead the pace attack,” Thakur exuded a lot of confidence. 

The ‘knuckle ball’ (a variation of slower delivery) is being used as a variation by a lot of Indian bowlers currently including pace spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar. However, it was Zaheer who had first started but Thakur insisted that he had learnt it all by his own. “[Zaheer] did it actually, but I didn’t watch much of his videos,” Thakur said. 

“I always knew what the grip was, and then I learned it on my own. I have been practicing it for a long time. It didn’t come easily. Whenever I found time to play with white ball while playing domestic cricket, I used to try knuckle ball. Probably for two years, I have been practicing it now.” Thakur said getting Upul Tharanga (Vijay Shankar dismissed him) and Thisara Perera quickly enabled India to cut down on at least 20 runs. 

“The way Lanka were going, they would have scored at least 165 to 170 but we got Upul (Tharanga) out when he was coming hard at us. Thisara then came in and hit a few boundaries. Those crucial 2-3 wickets kept coming and we were probably able to cut down the total by 15-20 runs.”