India all-rounder Shardul Thakur feels that the pitch served for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final is quite different to the typical Oval surface that India played on two years ago.
India had won that Test match by 157 runs in September 2021 with Thakur scoring half-centuries in each innings.
On Day 3 of the WTC final against Australia, Shardul played a crucial knock of 51 for India but he copped a couple of nasty blows in the process.
The seam-bowling all-rounder added a valuable 109-run partnership with Ajinkya Rahane (89), propelling India to 296 in reply to Australia’s first-innings total of 469.
“The pitch is surely different. Last time we played the pitch was doing something and everyone knows if there is cloud cover in England the ball moves around.
“As the game went forward last time and the team started taking rollers it became flat. But this time it was not anything like that. It was under prepared I felt going in to the game. Like we saw yesterday and today it was a bit up and down,” Shardul Thakur told reporters after the close of play on Friday (June 9).
The ball took off from length from one particular end and the Australian fast bowlers managed to exploit it efficiently.
“If we see yesterday’s play also, pitch changed a little. Ball was hard and bouncing from odd length. With six wickets down on the board, not too many runs, under pressure, yes you would say the toughest hour though I have played handful of game but felt like welcome to Test cricket.
“There is an area from where the ball is coming up, there is a little grass around the crack and the length is such that batsmen can’t leave the deliveries easily. You have to play, commit because we saw today many balls kept down and I mean that is an area of good length, and I mean, that area is at a good length, a little short of length.
“So that’s the area where the batsmen can’t immediately see and leave the ball. You have to play it. And if it bounces from there – then good luck for the batsmen. It was bouncing from the other end too – but from a bit behind, so the batsmen were getting time to adjust,” said Thakur.
At stumps on Day 3, Australia were 123/4 in their second innings, stretching their lead to 296 runs with Marnus Labuschagne (41*) and Cameron Green (7*) unbeaten in the middle.
“Cricket is a funny game. You can never say what is the right total, especially in an ICC final. One good partnership and you can chase down 450 or maybe more than that. We saw last year England chased 400 here and they did not lose too many wickets,” Shardul remarked.
(With PTI Inputs)
