Shardul Thakur: A Victor In The Face Of Calamity

Bhargav Dixit

Shardul Thakur played a career-best knock on Friday. [Source: @Oam_16/X]Shardul Thakur played a career-best knock on Friday. [Source: @Oam_16/X]

Not known for his built. Not known for his speed. Not known for his big-hitting. Not known to be a gun fielder.

However, on his day, Shardul Thakur can play each one of these roles to perfection to even put the best in the business to shame. On his day, Thakur treats crisis like a man.

Be it playing for India or Mumbai, there’s something inside the 33-year-old player which gets activated at the sight of trouble. It is exactly when Thakur breaks threatening partnerships as a bowler and builds threatening partnerships as a batter.

Shardul Thakur: The Crisis Man

A classic case of the aforementioned was put on display on the second day of the ongoing Mumbai vs Jammu & Kashmir Ranji Trophy match at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy today. With Mumbai losing their sixth wicket in the form of captain Ajinkya Rahane (16) in the second innings, Thakur registered a second first-class century to not only delay a loss on Friday but also put his team into contention of an outright victory.

Leading by a mere 5 runs at the time of Rahane’s dismissal, Thakur and all-rounder Tanush Kotian (58*) joining hands for an unbeaten 173-run seventh-wicket partnership has propelled their lead to 188. In what is his career-best knock in the format, Thakur will resume proceedings at 113* (119) on Day 3.

Getting a chance to bat at 42/6 in the 16th over yesterday, it was Thakur’s 51 (57) which prevented Mumbai from getting bundled out even before touching the three-figure mark after winning the toss and opting to bat first.

More than the score in this particular match, Thakur excelling in spite of the recent happenings of his career is inspirational, to say the least. Unsold during Indian Premier League 2025 auction, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024/25 was a bittersweet tournament for Thakur. The following Vijay Hazare Trophy didn’t provide much respite either.

Returning to the red-ball format now, Thakur hasn’t taken a lot of time in knocking the doors with respect to India’s tour of England 2025. Been there done that in terms of nailing the pace-bowling all-rounder’s role in England, Thakur’s heroics will force the chief selectors to consider him in spite of him not representing India in over a year now.

Shardul Thakur’s Overseas Batting Record

For the unversed, each one of his four Test and one ODI half-century has come in SENA countries. Undervalued more often than not, Thakur’s half-century in the historic Gabba Test four years ago and dual half-centuries in The Oval Test later that year played pivotal roles in making India triumphant.

One of the two Indian batters to cross the 50-run mark during ICC World Test Championship 2021/23 final against Australia, the right-handed batter inside him becomes street-smart when required to bail out his team.

Having scored three Test half-centuries at an average and strike rate of 24.71 and 65.03 respectively across eight innings in England, no other Indian batter has scored more 50+ individual scores than Thakur since his debut. Additionally, Thakur and Australia speedster Mitchell Starc are the only two visiting lower-order batters (Nos. 8-11) to have scored three Test half-centuries in England in the last decade.