India faced a huge defeat against South Africa the the ‘Boxing Day’ Test match. In the first Test match of the series, India’s overall performance was below the mark. Batters failed to make an impact and bowlers could not execute their plans. Shaardul Thakur conceded huge runs in the first innings. After watching his batting display, Ravi Shastri took a dig at him.
Shardul’s Performance:
Shardul Thakur was added to India’s squad as the perfect fourth seamer and a batting all-rounder. But in the first Test, he failed to show his excellence in both positions. After winning the toss, South Africa opted to field first. In the first innings, Team India faced a batting disaster. Apart from KL Rahul, no one got a chance to play a long innings. In the first innings, Shardul Thakur played a knock of 24 runs.
While bowling in South Africa, Shardul Thakur struggled a lot. After South Africa’s innings, he registered a spell of 1/101 with an economy rate of 5.3. His bowling spell was the most expensive compared to the other bowlers of the day. In the first innings, when South Africa was unstoppable, Indian bowlers were showing their toothless bowling attacks. Dean Elgar scored 185 runs in that inning. Indian bowlers were helpless in front of him.
Ravi Shastri’s view:
After Witnessing Team India’s horrible bowling display, he scrutinized everything. He felt Shardul is not a perfect fourth seamer. He thinks that India struggled because of a lack of experience. He said, “India lacked experience in their bowling attack. They’ve got two of them who are reasonably 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.”
Surprisingly, he raised his support for Arshdeep Singh. The young bowler recorded a four-wicket haul against South Africa in the recently concluded ODI series. He is an exceptionally talented left-arm bowler who can help India to win the matches. On this matter, Shastri said, “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.”
From January 3, India and South Africa will be locking horns at Cape Town in the second Test match. India hasn’t won a Test series against South Africa on South African soil. The wait continued for once again. Team India will try hard to win the second Test and make the series 1-1.
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