"If someone has quality, he should be given more chances" - Shardul Thakur; says Rohit Sharma is passionate about Mumbai cricket

Shardul Thakur hit 51 runs to take Mumbai from 47/7 to 120 against J&K in Bandra.

Shardul Thakur | BCCI

Mumbai and India all-rounder Shardul Thakur came to the rescue of his state side in their ongoing Ranji Trophy 2024-25 match against Jammu and Kashmir being played at Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy BKC, Mumbai.

Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and chose to bat first, but the decision backfired as Mumbai was reduced to 47/7 in 17.2 overs. But then Shardul Thakur, with 51 in 57 balls, and Tanush Kotian with 26 runs, took the team to 120 runs. Umar Nazir Mir and Yudhvir Singh picked 4 wickets each for J&K.

Talking about his knock at the end of the day, Shardul Thakur stated that if a player has shown quality, then he should be given more chances.

"What can I talk about regarding my quality? Others should talk about it. They should see that if someone has quality, he should be given more chances. I like batting in difficult situations. In easy situations, everyone does well, but how you put on the show in adverse situations matters. I see tough situations as a challenge and always think about how to overcome that challenge," Thakur told the media.

With Hardik Pandya regaining fitness and the arrival of Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur finds himself sidelined from the Indian team. He has not been chosen for the Indian team since his return from injury and most recently, suffered a setback as he went unsold in the IPL 2025 mega auction.

"You have to forget whatever has happened in the past; it is not going to change. It is important to be in the present and think about what you can do in the near future," he said.

Shardul defended India captain Rohit Sharma, who flopped on his Ranji Trophy comeback, saying his passion for Mumbai cricket remains intact. Rohit Sharma fell for 3 runs in 19 balls, trying to fend off a lifter from Umar Nazir Mir, and was out caught by Paras Dogra.

"He is always passionate about Mumbai cricket. Any Mumbaikar, the way we have seen hardships growing up as teenagers playing Maidan cricket, everyone is so passionate about Mumbai cricket that even if they're playing for India, they follow what (the) Mumbai team is doing.

When they come back here, they play as if they are part of this team, and they play their hearts out. To be fair to Rohit, I felt he was just batting in his own zone (and), unlike you said, he wasn't trying a lot. (He was just keeping things simple, but yes, against the new ball, you get one chance, and it can go anywhere," Thakur said.

Thakur stated that Mumbai wanted to see off the new ball and face the J&K spinners, but their batters failed to execute that strategy.

We have seen in BKC that there is help for bowlers in the first one to one-and-a-half hours. But when we see out that phase, runs are easy to come by. Had we played that phase well, we could have scored big.

Often it has been seen that moisture quickly goes away whenever we play here. If the bowlers bowl the correct lengths in the first hour, they will be able to get wickets. If they miss, it will look good from the outside, but often wickets don't fall." "We took a chance (to bat first) that did not pay off. The whole idea was to bat first and expect spin later on," he said.

Thakur stated that conditions were difficult in the white-ball tournaments Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy when his economy rate was high.

In VHT, he got 10 wickets in seven matches at an economy rate of 6.56, while in SMAT, he finished as the equal third-highest wicket-taker with 15 wickets in nine matches at an economy rate of 10.51.

"If you see the domestic T20 or (the) one-day tournament, most teams winning the toss won the match. Games started at 9:00 am; there was out-and-out help for fast bowlers for 20 overs. We lost the toss against two good teams, and the pitch became flat after lunch.

They were tracks you could hit on from ball one. In such cases, you can't judge bowlers. On those surfaces, any top bowler would get hit; take any top bowler, and he will get hit." "The pitches were made (in) such (a way) that 300-350 were easily scored," Shardul signed off.

Coming to the match, J&K ended day one on 174/7 with a lead of 54 runs as Shubham Khajuria made 53 and Abid Mushtaq made 44 runs. Mohit Avasthi took 3 wickets, while Shams Mulani took 2 wickets.

(PTI inputs)

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 23 Jan, 2025

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