Cricket is a funny game – Shardul Thakur on potential fate of WTC final

Shardul Thakur played an important role against the Australians, providing the much-needed support to Ajinkya Rahane as India managed to pile up 296 in response to Australia’s 469 in the first innings of the World Test Championship final. India needed someone desperately to come to the aid of Rahane, and the duo waged a full-blown war against the might of the Aussies.

At the end of day three, Australia found themselves locked at 123/4, securing a momentous lead of 296 runs. However, amidst the chaos and with the pitch offering some assistance, Thakur had an intriguing remark about the fate of the fixture.

Shardul Thakur said, “Well, cricket is a funny game. You can never say what is the right total and this one-off game, especially ICC finals, you never know, I mean, who can handle the pressure better out there, one good partnership when you can even chase down 450 or maybe more than that.”

He further added, “Last year England chased 400 here and they did not lose too many wickets. So that’s a positive sign for us. Whatever they put up on the board, it’s too early to make any predictions. We see a lot of times in Test cricket that game changes within an hour. So yes, we like to be optimistic tomorrow going on the field. And yeah, we’ll take it on from there.”

He eventually concluded by talking about the total on the board, adding, “We didn’t decide anything. There was no situation to decide anything. We just had to absorb the pressure. We were talking to each other a lot.”