Published: Dec 29, 2023, 11:25 AM (IST)
Edited: Dec 29, 2023, 11:25 AM (IST)
Shardul Thakur has come under scrutiny from former India coach Ravi Shastri for his dreadful bowling during India’s innings defeat to South Africa in the Centurion Test. The fourth Indian pace-bowling option, Shardul, finished with a 1/101 economy rate, making him the most costly bowler out of the five. Shardul had an unimpressive bowling stint. Shardul’s scores of 24 and 2 indicate that the Indian think tank’s choice to have him in the batting lineup to support it clearly didn’t pay off either. India’s bowling looked lifeless and without venom, which portrays a dismal image, even though their batting surrender, which resulted in an innings defeat.
Shardul has taken just 7 wickets in 7 Tests since Johannesburg 2022, when he took 7/61, clearly showing a downward trend. Shastri believed that experience was what India required, and even though Shardul had experience, it wasn’t enough, despite dismissing Dean Elgar, he was only mediocre all around. The Indian bowling was always going to be a concern since Prasidh Krishna was making his Test debut and Mohammed Shami couldn’t play due to injury.
“India lacked experience in their bowling attack. They’ve got two of them who are reasonable experienced – Bumrah and Siraj – but they missed Shami big time. Shardul Thakur is not a baby, but he is the 4th seamer. You need a proper third seamer and that makes a massive difference overseas,” Shastri said after South Africa’s innings ended on 408/9 with a lead of 163 runs.
What are the available possibilities then? Although Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav were formerly powerful members of the Indian pack of five, India has long since moved on from them and Mukesh Kumar is still relatively fresh. While discussing India’s poor bowling performance with Shastri, Mark Nicholas brought up a very intriguing name: Arshdeep Singh. However, before anybody could get too excited, the former coach made a very important point. Arshdeep did indeed lead South Africa in the ODIs, taking five wickets in Johannesburg and four wickets in Paarl. He also provides a left-arm variation to the game. However, is he prepared for the demanding format of Test cricket? Though Shastri isn’t sure yet, he issued a request to Arshdeep, which the youngster could fulfill.
“The thing is you want to see his First-Class record. Can he bowl long spells? Has he played a lot of Ranji Trophy cricket? I would in fact go and make him play a lot of it, Ranji and First-Class cricket and keep him in the mix because if someone can swing it like he did with the white ball in South Africa, he could be a handy customer,” Shastri added on.
