I am really humbled by everyone's gestures: Shardul Thakur

Shardul Thakur along with Washington Sundar displayed a great amount of grit and resilience with the willow in India's first innings. Everyone was in ‘awe’ of the batting characteristics that the Palghar-born pacer had possessed. The duo recorded an all-important 123-run partnership for the seventh wicket which proved to be instrumental in Team India’s reply.

Thakur made his Test debut for India back in October 2018, against West Indies in the second Test match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. It was an unfortunate outing for the pacer as he had to walk away from the match after bowling just 10 balls in the first innings due to a groin injury. It took him three years to get another chance to don the whites for India.

Speaking to Sports Today, the 29-year-old expressed his happiness on receiving rich praises by everyone for his shots.

"I am really humbled by everyone's gestures. Everyone is appreciating my shots. I mean everyone in the world, especially the cover drive. I never thought that it would come out so well and they would appreciate it so much. I am actually getting shy when someone talks about it,” Shardul Thakur told Sports Today.

But when I went in to bat the situation was difficult, six wickets were down at that point of time. Washington had played a few deliveries and so I asked him about the nature of the pitch. I asked is it difficult to play or we lost wickets because of pressure?” he said.

It wasn’t only the batting performance by Thakur that put the hosts on their backfoot, he had a tremendous Test match in terms of bowling as well. He affected 7 wickets in the fourth and final Test match. Given that the Aussies intended to score some quick runs and set up a big score on the board, Shardul explained why Marcus Harris’s wicket was crucial for India.

"We were expecting them to come hard at us and they did so. They got a really good start. The day ended with six overs and the next day we came in fresh. Even then they started hitting, so their plan was clear -- to score runs quickly and set up a big target," he said.

"But at that point of time as a bowler, I felt that if I take a wicket here, maybe, the new batsman would not score at the same rate. The whole idea was to get that one ball and get anyone of them out. If I remember my spell I had bowled many good length deliveries to Marcus Harris, maybe I thought it's time to bowl him a bouncer. I tried and he got out. After that our bowlers got hopeful, they got energetic and excited and the game started changing a bit again," Thakur further said.

[Sports Today input]