Indian pacer Shardul Thakur has revealed that veteran England pacer James Anderson abused Mohammed Siraj during the first Test at Trent Bridge and Jasprit Bumrah during the second Test at Lord's in the recent Test series in UK.
The verbal exchange between England and Indian players made the headlines during the recently concluded Test series with Bumrah and Anderson being the central figures of the heated exchanges.
Things were heating up in the middle after Anderson faced few bouncers from Bumrah while batting in the second Test and even the duo was seen exchanging words at the end of day 2's play at Lord’s.
Thakur told Times of India, “There were no tensions with the England team. It (The issue) was only with James Anderson. He abused Mohammed Siraj in the first Test, and likewise, he did the same to (Jasprit) Bumrah in the Lord’s Test, when he (Bumrah) bowled the ‘body line’ to him.”
The pacer who himself cracked two fifties in England shared the experience of Indian tailenders when they batted in overseas conditions. He said, “Have you seen how fast bowlers bowl to our tail-enders when we go overseas? Mohammed Shami’s arm got fractured in Adelaide. T Natarajan was bombarded with fast ‘body line’ balls at 90-plus miles an hour. We are not here to make friendships and spare anyone. We are here to win.”
On his job in England for Team India, Thakur said: “My job was simple— I had to support the other three pacers. But at some stage (of my career) in other forms of cricket and in domestic games, I too had played as the main seamer of my team. So my natural instinct is to take wickets. Even when England were cruising in the second innings with no wickets on board, my intention was to take wickets, and not even once did I think of bowling defensively.”
He signed off by saying, “Rory Burns’ [wicket at Oval] was a reward of a good ball which pitched on the right spot and moved away. I was really pleased with the wickets of Pope and Root. I was just trying to bowl that teasing line and length outside the off-stump.”
