India all-rounder Shardul Thakur earned a lot of praises for his performance with the bat in the first innings as he top-scored from the visitors’ side with 57 (36) saving India from an embarrassment of 150 all-out and taking the team to a respectable 191 in the fourth Test at The Oval.
The former India batsman VVS Laxman who was highly impressed with Thakur’s batting performance lauded the Mumbai-based cricketer and also talked about some of his favorite shots from his innings.
“Credit to Shardul Thakur. Hats off to him. First innings, he was the savior for the Indian team, and now in this innings as well. Some of the shots he played all around the park, the cover drive off Moeen Ali, the pull shot, the straight drive, the lofted drive, he’s got all the shots in the book. A very good display of batting from Shardul Thakur,” Laxman told ESPNCricinfo.
The former India cricketer then pointed out that even though the right-arm quick picked 1-54 in the first innings with the ball, he can be picked in the playing XI as the all-rounder of the team and should be preferred over Ravindra Jadeja going ahead.
“I would always go for bowlers who are penetrative. For me, the top seven are expected to contribute with the bat so the bowlers I would pick are going to be the ones who can pick up wickets. Thinking about it more, suppose you want to have Shardul Thakur (in the team), then probably Jadeja, the all-rounder, may miss out,” the right-hand batsman opined.
Laxman also stressed his point of replacing Jadeja with Thakur saying that the Indian team is not getting too many overs from the left-arm spinner whereas Shardul is contributing with the bat as well.
“India or Virat Kohli are not getting too many overs from Jadeja and Shardul Thakur can contribute with the bat-like we have seen in this Test match. Then you have four quality and effective bowlers who can get you wickets and Shardul Thakur might as well bat at No. 7. So that is an option Virat Kohli can look at,” the 46-year-old concluded.
Thus, with England needing 291 runs to win the fourth Test and take a lead in this series, it will be exciting to see how the Indian bowling unit responds on the final day of this ongoing Test match.
(With ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
