Shardul Thakur.
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI
Just like he got here exhausting at the Vidarbha bowlers with the willow, Shardul Thakur minced no phrases at the Mumbai specialist batters after the first day’s play of the Ranji Trophy last.
“We are not happy with the total that we have put on board. Certainly with the way we started of, if the top order had applied themselves, had the right attitude and approach, we could have reached 350 or even 370 with five or six wickets down at the end of the day’s play,” Shardul mentioned.
From 81 for no loss, Mumbai had been decreased to 111 for six earlier than Shardul got here to the rescue with a 69-ball 75. During an 108-ball boundary-less drought earlier than Shardul’s first 4, Mumbai misplaced captain Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer, amongst others.
While Rahane has struggled proper by means of the season with the willow, Shreyas has regarded jittery ever since being excluded from the BCCI’s central contracts checklist. Shardul stood proper behind the duo.
Rough patch
“It’s just a rough patch for them and in a rough patch, nothing goes your way,” Shardul mentioned, including that the duo has been “absolute match winners for Mumbai and India”. “It’s time to support them rather than criticizing them. They are extremely hard workers. They put in a lot of efforts towards their batting, a lot of thinking towards their batting. And they both of them are absolutely team players.”
While he was a tad disillusioned at shedding out on scoring a second hundred on a trot, Shardul acknowledged veteran coach Vilas Godbole for a batting tip provided forward of the final week’s semifinal.
“The different day at BKC, I used to be chatting with Vilas Godbole sir and he simply made out a few tremendous factors at my batting. He mentioned at instances you are inclined to not flex your knees and attempt to hit the ball. He mentioned the mindset ought to be to hit the ball however he mentioned you need to flex your knees and attempt to go in direction of the ball. I did it in the final two video games and I’m glad it has come off, he mentioned.
