Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) all-rounder Shardul Thakur has dismissed speculations about his injury ahead of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, slated to be held soon after the IPL 2023 season.
Since Shardul is not bowling a lot in KKR matches, questions have been raised over his fitness and whether he is carrying an injury in the ongoing IPL.
Thakur has bowled just 14.5 overs from his 8 matches in the 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League. In contrast, the seam-bowling all-rounder delivered 48.3 overs and 60 overs in 2022 and 2021 editions of the tournament, respectively.
However, Shardul Thakur denied the rumours of injury concerns, stating that the Knight Riders are full of all-rounders and hence he is asked to bowl when it is absolutely necessary.
“We have a side full of all-rounders with (Andre) Russell, Sunil (Nairne)... We have got maximum of eight bowling options that also includes Nitish (Rana) who also bowls an over or two nowadays,” Thakur told PTI in an interaction.
“It also depends on the situation of the game, if the captain feels the need to bowl me or not bowl me completely depends on him. As far as teams’ strategy decision-making is concerned, I would not pay attention to it a lot,” he added.
“I had a small niggle, so I didn’t play a few games, when I came back, I didn’t bowl as I was not bowling-fit. But yes, now I’m back to bowling and hopefully, whenever I get the ball, I will get the job done,” he further stated.
Shardul Thakur is likely to feature in India’s playing XI for the WTC final against Australia since pacers like Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat are struggling with injuries and Jasprit Bumrah isn’t part of the squad.
Talking about his own workload, Thakur said it is not easy to be an all-rounder in the modern game.
“It is difficult and not easy. It’s difficult in the sense of body-wise because when you go in for practice, you literally have to do everything -- fielding practice, bowling and batting. On top of that, you have to do a bit of running around to stay fit," Shardul remarked.
“Overall, it’s not easy but yeah that’s the challenge in modern day’s cricket that you have to manage your body to stay fit and keep going,” he concluded.
