Shardul Thakur needs to be in the squad for the England Tour

[singhvivek141]

Question is where Shardul will play ?

 

Jaiswal

Rohit

Gill

Virat 

Pant (wk)

KL Rahul

Jadeja 

Nitish

Shami/Harshit

Bumrah

Siraj

 

Shardul isn't good enough for a 3rd pacer...can play as 4th pacer though.

So either of Nitish or KL will have to lose their place to accommodate him.

 

Our batting will be shaky already as Gill, Rohit & Virat are weak against moving ball and Pant too ain't get either if the bowler is new.

[Suhaan]

Taking Thakur will be a big mistake

We should move on from him when we are not moving on from badada Vada and koolie

[cowboysfan]

not useful for Australia but definitely an option in England. 

[vvvslaxman]

8 hours ago, Nikhil_cric said:

Would be a backwards step. But I don't see any lineup doing much in Test cricket currently anyway. 

It is not a backward step for the simple reason he is the only bowler who can swing the ball both ways. I am talking about from the hand. We don't have many swing bowlers coming through. In IPL We have Chahar, Bhuvi, Sandeep who are the main swing bowlers. Vaibhav, Arshdeep swing. Yes Arshdeep has some potential. Other than that i don't see many swing bowlers.

[vvvslaxman]

2 hours ago, cowboysfan said:

not useful for Australia but definitely an option in England. 

 

Actually he is the only Indian bowler i have seen swinging both ways in Australia since RP/Irfan/Zak days.

[Nikhil_cric]

13 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

It is not a backward step for the simple reason he is the only bowler who can swing the ball both ways. I am talking about from the hand. We don't have many swing bowlers coming through. In IPL We have Chahar, Bhuvi, Sandeep who are the main swing bowlers. Vaibhav, Arshdeep swing. Yes Arshdeep has some potential. Other than that i don't see many swing bowlers.

The Dukes doesn't swing much anymore. Not since 2022.  

Swing bowling is anyway not what we need in Test cricket. 

 

 

[vvvslaxman]

2 minutes ago, Nikhil_cric said:

The Dukes doesn't swing much anymore. Not since 2022.  

Swing bowling is anyway not what we need in Test cricket. 

 

 

 

Indian bowling looked toothless at Bengaluru due to lack of swing bowlers. Actually Duke swung for 40 to 50 overs last time. We cannot survive there purely with seam bowler like Shami who doesn't have a flattering record in England. It will be Bumrah or nothing. Siraj has regressed big time. He is not a swing bowler either.

[Nikhil_cric]

4 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

Indian bowling looked toothless at Bengaluru due to lack of swing bowlers. Actually Duke swung for 40 to 50 overs last time. We cannot survive there purely with seam bowler like Shami who doesn't have a flattering record in England. It will be Bumrah or nothing. Siraj has regressed big time. He is not a swing bowler either.

 

Bengaluru was predominantly seam movement because of the covered pitch.

 

There was swing too but only KL got out to a ball that swung massively. 

 

Swing was overrated in England and has been for years. 

 

Even Broad and Anderson were primarily wobble seam bowlers from 2014 onwards 

 

 

[AKane]

FWIW Thakur was carrying an injury in early 2024 which he was operated on in England in June 2024......maybe that injury affected his performance in late 2023/early 2024.

 

https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/shardul-thakur-undergoes-foot-surgery-in-london-out-for-3-months-5875151

 

 

[deepdynamo]

The biggest mistake in BGT was to play Nitish, Jadeja and Sundar at 6,7,8 reducing our bowling to effective 3 man bowling attack.

We can't do the same mistake in Eng. Thakur is the missing link at No.8 - the additional fast bowler who can bat.

 

The other major problem is how to accommodate Rohit. We can not make a good team with Both Rohit and Kohli in playing XI.

 

Ideally Gill should also bat at No.4. He is susceptible vs new ball.

 

 

[crictime]

Injury prone for long series. Even in Ranji he struggles with fitness. Huffs and puffs. In England he will need to dive to catch, save runs, bowl more overs, run fast to field. Sudden change in intensity, efforts and workload will be tough for him. He is 33 years old. I doubt the management will select him. Already Rohit Sharma is there but he does not has to bowl pace. Shardul's role demands much better fitness.

Edited March 29, 2025 by crictime

[The Realist]

[BacktoCricaddict]

Doesn't a bowler like him do the best when it is a bit overcast and the ball is relatively new? If I were the captain, I would've handed him the ball much earlier. Even Jadeja bowled before him.

[vvvslaxman]

13 minutes ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

Doesn't a bowler like him do the best when it is a bit overcast and the ball is relatively new? If I were the captain, I would've handed him the ball much earlier. Even Jadeja bowled before him.

Ya.. could have given him one over. Using him after 40 overs against well set batsmen was as good as not using him at all.

[crictime]

Scored 1 run and has leaked 23 runs in 3 overs. 

[Gollum]

Useless selection. Kuldeep/Reddy/Sundar in his place would have put the fear of God in Pommie minds. 

[lemsip]

7 hours ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

Doesn't a bowler like him do the best when it is a bit overcast and the ball is relatively new?

This is just a myth that surrounds him when playing in England. Has never taken more than 2 wickets here and averages 37.8.  A lot of his wickets were anyway through batsmen mistakes rather than any swing

[crictime]

Selecting a 34 year old all-rounder to make a comeback is not wise. Short sighted approach by the think tank. 

[rkt.india]

8 hours ago, Gollum said:

Useless selection. Kuldeep/Reddy/Sundar in his place would have put the fear of God in Pommie minds. 

He is a fluke player

[Ultimate_Game]

21 hours ago, Gollum said:

Useless selection. Kuldeep/Reddy/Sundar in his place would have put the fear of God in Pommie minds. 

 

I like Sundar. He would've stopped the collapse and also bowled better than our pacers bar Bumrah.