How does Shardul Thakur get his wickets? By outthinking the batsmen
“Many people have that lazy opinion about Shardul,” L Balaji, Shardul Thakur’s bowling coach at Chennai Super Kings, says when it’s put across that Thakur has a happy knack of taking a wicket. Lazy?
“I also use it but what I am protesting against is the fact that sometimes people use it to suggest that he can get lucky with the wicket-taking balls. As if he hasn’t worked intelligently through a spell. As if he hasn’t bowled them deliberately. Let me tell you, he is a very intelligent bowler.”
That intelligence was seen in the seven-wicket haul in game-turning spells on day 2 at Johannesburg.
It’s what he didn’t do that caught the eye. A predominantly outswing bowler, he just didn’t show that card to the left-handed Dean Elgar. Perhaps, that was the reason Elgar eventually reached out to...
