This Plan Worked For Me: Shardul Thakur Underlines The Strategy Behind His Performance That Put Australian Batsmen In Trouble

Indian right-arm paceman Shardul Thakur starred in their consolation victory over Australia in the third ODI in Canberra. Shardul Thakur, who fared poorly in India’s last ODI back in February, played his first match of the Australian tour and made a significant impact. The 29-year old revealed his plan that bore the fruits in the game.

Shardul Thakur claimed three wickets in ten overs for 51 runs while also conceding a maiden over as India left Australia to chase 303 for a series sweep. Thakur took the massive scalp of Steve Smith followed by Moises Henriques and finally Sean Abbott to hand India the upper hand on all three occasions. The visitors managed to close out the game by 13 runs, bowling out the opposition for 289.

Shardul Thakur observed that Australian batsmen had played plenty of cut and pulls shots in the series; hence, it felt essential not to hand them the width. The 29-year old wanted to make them play in straighter lines and the strategy paid off.

“See, the important part was to stick to our line and lengths in this match. If you see the series, Australian batsmen have played the pull and cut shots quite a bit, I just tried to keep them off those shots and I was trying to make them play in straighter lines. This plan worked for me,” Thakur told ANI.

We wanted to keep them on the backfoot and win the game: Shardul Thakur

The Maharashtra-born pacer admitted that Steve Smith’s wicket was a lucky one for him and revealed that the visitors wanted to peg them on the backfoot to script victory. At the same time, Shardul hailed Smith, conceding that it was massive wicket and the win was essential leading into the T20I series, beginning in Canberra from Friday.

“See, I feel sometimes that we get lucky. When we try to execute the plans, we wanted to keep them on the backfoot and win the game, we were planning to bowl at the stumps when Smith was batting, I got lucky that I strangled him down the legside. He is a top player, it was a huge wicket for us. Winning this game to carry the momentum in the T20I series was important” he added.

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