‘(If Australia and England can)….why not the Indian team’: Shardul Thakur on batting deep in white ball format

There’s no rocket science behind Shardul Thakur’s success as a cricketer up to now. He can get essential wickets with the ball, usually towards the run of play. And he can rating runs decrease down the order. Just like he did within the first ODI towards South Africa. Thakur dismissed Janemman Malan and Temba Bavuma and scored 33 runs off 31 deliveries within the chase of 250, which India fell wanting 9 runs finally.

“If you see the teams who have done very well on the international platform, their batting lineup has been quite deep,” Shardul mentioned in a media interplay forward of the second ODI.

“For that matter Australia, if you see Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, they bat at number eight and nine. Even for that matter England. Even their batting lineup is deep. Why not the Indian team? Even we can have our batting lineup deep and make that difference in the game. The difference of 15-20 runs which can be crucial in winning the match, especially in white ball format.”

Further explaining his function with the bat, the 30-year-old, “I’ve been focusing on batting since quite a long now. Obviously batting at number seven or eight or even the one who’s coming on nine, if he can add few runs to the team’s total it’s always great. That gives you cushion to defend the total or if you are chasing then it allows the top order batters to play freely.”

Innings Break!

South Africa publish 249/4 on the board.

2⃣ wickets for @imShard
1⃣ wicket every for @imkuldeep18 & @bishnoi0056

Over to #StaffIndia batters now. 👍 👍

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/d65WZUUDh2 #INDvSA | @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/QjufluMv2y

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 6, 2022

Thakur, who made his comeback within the Indian squad after that includes within the India A sequence towards New Zealand, was excluded within the squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia.

“Nirasha bilkul hai (the disappointment is definitely there),” he mentioned when requested about the identical. “It’s a player’s dream to play in a World Cup and also win it with the team. It’s okay if I didn’t get selected this time. There’s a lot of cricket coming ahead. The One Day World Cup is upon us as well. So my focus would be on performing well in all the games that I play ahead.”

The bowling all-rounder is nevertheless, assured of the Indian workforce that arrived in Australia on Friday.

“Ye team bhi koi kam nahi hai (This team is no less),” he mentioned.

“I think balance-wise our team is very good. The variety is good. Different kinds of spinners, fast bowlers and batters. If you ask me about recent times, we’ve created history every now and then. We’d created history the last time we played in Australia as well,” added Thakur who scored a fifty and picked a 4-fer in India’s Test win on the Gabba final 12 months.

Not simply India’s, different bowlers are leaking huge as effectively

India’s bowling has leaked huge within the ongoing residence season. In the final six T20Is that have been performed towards Australia and South Africa, India conceded above 200 fifty p.c of the occasions. And whereas the hosts regarded in management in the course of the first ODI in Lucknow with the Proteas 4 down for 110, David Miller and Heinrich Klassen’s 139 run partnership off 109 deliveries modified that.

Thakur nevertheless believes it’s essential to take a look at the opposition numbers as effectively whereas assessing India’s bowling woes.

“Baaki ke bowlers jo khelne aa rahe hai India mai, unko bhi maar pad rahi hai (The other bowlers who are coming to play in India are conceding runs as well),” he mentioned.

“If you criticise the (Indian) bowlers from the T20 series against South Africa, then you should criticise the South African bowlers as well because the series was won by us. Maar toh unke bowlers ko bhi padi hai. I think before asking about the consistency, we need to look at the pitch and the conditions. There are times when we play One Day games where more than 350 runs are being scored. In those games all the bowlers are definitely going to get battered but is the opposition able to score those runs?”

He additionally elaborates on how these a part of India’s ODI squad might take time to hit their stride, sporting India’s blue after a spot.

“The boys are playing are in the team after a long time. Ishan (Kishan) has made a comeback. I’ve played after a month and half since the Zimbabwe tour, Shubman (Gill) was playing red-ball cricket in England. So all the boys here have come after a gap of a month or more barring Shreyas (Iyer), who just played the T20 (vs South Africa). He has scored good runs. Sanju (Samson) was playing with India A. He scored as well. I was also playing for India A and batted well.”

“There’ll be the odd days when you don’t score many runs and that can happen when you are playing after a gap. In the games to come, the team will perform well in all three departments,” Thakur concluded.