‘Lord’ Shardul Thakur got ‘angry’ when he didn’t get batting in CSK nets, reveals Imran Tahir

Team India all-rounder Shardul Thakur has quickly become the toast of the nation in his brief six-Test career. The Mumbai and former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) all-rounder has already notched up three fifties and a career-best bowling haul of 7/61 in Test cricket to earn a popular nickname of ‘Lord’.

Thakur blazed an impressive 28 in the second innings of the second Test against South Africa at Wanderers to give his team a decent target to bowl. However, South Africa went on to level the series with a seven-wicket win on Thursday (January 6).

Speaking of Thakur’s love for batting, former CSK teammate and South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir revealed that the all-rounder used to take his batting very seriously and even got angry when not given enough time at the nets.

“He (Shardul Thakur) takes a lot of pride in his batting. He takes his batting very seriously. I play with him for Chennai and he does a lot of batting practice. On one or two occasions, he got angry when he didn’t get enough batting in the nets,” Tahir said on the Star Sports show.

“It shows that he is very keen regarding his batting. He made very vital runs in yesterday’s game. They are very important runs. The way this match will progress, you will see the value of those runs and I believe the positive way in which he played, it is his natural game and he got the reward for that as well,” he added.

History will remember Dean Elgar as the first Test captain to beat a side with Shardul Thakur in it. — Abhishek Mukherjee (@SachinAzharCT) (@ovshake42) January 6, 2022

Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir was also a part of the same panel. “Excellent contribution and because of that only Shardul Thakur is in the playing XI. If you bat at No.8, you will want to perform with both bat and ball. The shots he played were like a proper batter,” Gambhir said.

KL Rahul said the visitors were 50-60 runs short in the first innings after the Test match. “Every Test match we play, we want to win, we go out there and compete hard, but South Africa played really well and deserved this victory. We were looking to get on the field today, try and do something special, 122 to get, the pitch was playing up and down, we had a good chance, but their batters played really well,” said Rahul.

“If I want to be harsh, the first innings total of 202 was at least 50-60 runs short, we should have scored more and put them under pressure. Shardul (Thakur) has been superb for us, has won us a lot of games, he bowled well in the first innings and gave us a chance today as well,” he added.

India and South Africa will now lock horns in the third Test from January 11.