There is something more than just wickets and runs that define Shardul Thakur. As he charges to the crease, your mind ends up asking a question – How and why is it compelling to watch Shardul in full flight? It isn’t as if Shardul summons quick deliveries in the range of 95mph. It isn’t as if he leaves the batter stunned into silence by extracting steep bounce. And yet you want to watch him. Love his craft.
The heart of a Shardul performance is his unshakable belief. With Shardul, every ball seems like the final delivery of a World Cup final. When he bats, every ball seems as if his life is dependent on the outcome of that particular offering. Somewhere, Shardul’s inner voice perhaps keeps telling him – nothing is impossible.
On a balmy night in Hyderabad, we saw more evidence of Shardul’s tenacity. Shardul bagged a four-for against the marauding SRH side and proved to be the cornerstone of LSG’s victory. Shardul’s words in the post-match presser summed up his mental make-up: “The batters are coming hard at the bowlers, why don’t the bowlers go hard at the batters?”
The aforementioned quote is just the outside coating of the narrative surrounding Shardul. Spool back in time to last year, when Shardul was participating in the Dr (Capt) K Thimmappiah Memorial Tournament. In that tournament, he went for almost five an over in the second innings of the game against KSCA Secretary XI, with Luvnith Sisodia taking his bowling to the cleaners.
A few months later, in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Shardul gave away 72 runs in a mere six overs as Karnataka chased down a monstrous target of 383. That is when yours truly pondered – Is this the fag end of Shardul’s career? After all, in recent times, he has been laid low by a few injuries. Shardul also seemed to have lost a little bit of nip in his bowling as seen by his lacklustre performance in the 2023-24 Centurion Test. In the subsequent 2024 IPL, he had taken just five scalps in nine matches.
Every point seemed to corroborate the hypothesis that Shardul’s prowess was on a decline. But yet again Shardul has proved all of us wrong, and may I say for the umpteenth time. He picked up 35 wickets at an average of just under 23 in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy. And when Mohsin Khan was ruled out of the 2025 IPL, it was time for LSG to call up Shardul into the squad.
Incidentally, with Shardul going unsold in the IPL Auction, he had planned to play for Essex in the County Championship. But destiny had something else in store for him. Currently, Shardul sits atop the IPL bowling charts with six wickets. “See, I feel all these things keep happening in cricket,” he told the host broadcaster at the innings break after SRH‘s innings. “It was just one bad day in the auction, I didn’t get picked by any of the franchises.
“Unfortunately, a few injuries here and there, there were a few inquiries whether I could join the camp. But LSG was the one who approached me first, so I had to give them preference and even closely working with Zaheer Khan, he gave me a call. And it was always on the cards, I had to accept it. And like I always say, skills are always there, talent is always there. It’s just about the form and bad days, you have to go through it in cricket,” he added.
Pore through the various pages of Shardul’s redoubtable career and you will find many examples of his willpower. Many moons ago, in a 2017 Ranji Trophy final, from ball one to the last ball of the match, Shardul never gave up. His final analysis read: 1 for 90. Those figures don’t do justice to the lion-hearted performance put up by Shardul. Even when the rub of the green seemed to be going Parthiv Patel’s way, Shardul bowled with unwavering spirit. On another day, he could have easily taken 3-4 wickets.
Eight years later, Shardul is still teaching us the virtues of life, one of perseverance and bouncebackability. And in an imaginary sense, he is also telling us to pen down a line for him – Never ever write me off.