Shardul Thakur

India pacer Shardul Narendra Thakur, who plays First-Class cricket for Mumbai, has been a part of  many teams including Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai, and India A. 

He was inducted into the Indian squad for the Test tour of the West Indies. His greatest recognition came in Sri Lanka during the time of his ODI debut.   

Shardul managed just 4 wickets in his debut season in the Ranji Trophy in 2012. He redeemed himself in the 2013/14 season, picking up 27 wickets in 6 games, and was in full flow in the third season since his debut, snaring 48 wickets and was the joint-highest wicket-taker for the 2014/15 season.

Despite his heroics in the Ranji Trophy, he had to wait for a bigger moment to snap a place in the Indian cricket team. Playing against Saurashtra, he picked up 8 wickets in the game and led Mumbai to their 41 st Ranji Trophy win. 

This set in motion his maiden selection to the Indian team, when he was drafted into the side for the Caribbean tour in 2016. However, he did not get to feature in any game. He made his ODI debut on August 31, 2017 against Sri Lanka scalping just one wicket but his economical bowling impressed the fans and selectors.

Ahead of the 2015 edition of the IPL, Shardul was signed by the Punjab Kings (formerly known as Kings XI Punjab) for INR 2 million but played just one match. For the tenth season of the IPL, now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant secured his services and in his debut season for the newly added team, he picked up 12 wickets in 11 games. He became a lethal powerplay bowler and his knack for picking key wickets impressed his fans.

Shardul became just the second cricketer to wear the number 10 jersey which sparked numerous controversies after which BCCI retired Sachin’s number 10 jersey. After one year of his ODI debut, he took his career-best figures against Sri Lanka in March 2018 where he picked 4 important wickets for just 27 runs and earned the Man of the Match award.

In October 2018, Shardul’s Test debut against West Indies was horrific as the youngster suffered a groin injury after bowling just 10 deliveries and had to be taken off the ground.

Not just his bowling, Thakur’s fierce batting lower down the order dazzled MS Dhoni who included him in his future plans for CSK and bought him ahead of the 2018 IPL. Though his next two seasons were quite an ordinary one, he played in the 2019 IPL final against Mumbai Indians where he rattled two wickets. Shardul got LBW in the final delivery of the match when CSK needed two runs and lost the title.

After two years from his Test debut, Shardul was included in the playing XI in the fourth Test against Australia in Brisbane when major players were injured. He took one of the best bowling sides apart and scored his maiden Test fifty proving to be more than a handy batsman.

Shardul is a bowler who likes to hit the deck hard and provides vicious seam movement. He has perfected the outswinger over time, making himself a dangerous proposition against any batting side. The fact that he can play big shots lower down the order makes him even menacing in the shorter formats.

(As of March 2021)