The unsold Shardul Thakur turned lucky when Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) roped him in as replacement for left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan just before the start of the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL); and the pace-bowling all-rounder justified that with a match-winning spell of 4 for 34 in his side’s five-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday.
After the match, Thakur called for tracks where bowlers don’t feel hard done by.
“I feel bowlers get very little on these kinds of pitches,” the 33-year-old Thakur said about the batting-friendly tracks in the IPL.
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Thakur’s spell restricted SRH to 190/9. The LSG run-chase was led by big-hitting Nocholas Pooran who smashed 70 runs off just 26 balls to seal the victory with 3.5 overs to spare.
“Even in the last game pre-match, I said that pitches should be prepared in such a way that the game hangs in the balance for batters and bowlers,” Thakur continued, calling for tracks that have something in them for the bowlers as well. “Especially after the impact player rule, it’s not fair on the bowlers if a team scores 240-250 runs.”
Thakur dismissed Abhishek Sharma (6) and SRH’s last-match centurion Ishan Kishan (0) off consecutive balls in his opening spell to hurt the hosts.
Talking about his late call-up to the IPL, Thakur said he had plans in place to play County cricket in England had he not received a call from SRH mentor Zaheer Khan.
“I had made my plans. I had signed for County Cricket if I wasn’t picked for IPL,” said Thakur. “While playing Ranji, I got a call from Zaheer Khan that we are looking at you as a potential replacement, so don’t switch yourself off. If we get you, we’ll need you to start. That was the day I got back in the IPL zone. Ups and downs keep happening. That was a bad day when I wasn’t picked in the auction.”
PANT RELIEVED
The win came as a relief for SRH captain Pant.
“Big relief, but as a team we talk about the process. It’s not about getting too high when you win and not about getting too low when you lose,” said Pant.
“As a team, we can’t focus on uncontrollables.”
Pant added that the team management wants Pooran to always express himself with his natural, attacking game.
“I think we just want to give freedom to him. You got to give someone the charge when he is batting well, and he has batted brilliantly for us,” said the LSG captain.
Pooran smashed 6 sixes and as many fours in his blistering knock, and the West Indies batter said his focus is on timing the ball and get into “good positions” to play the big shots.
“I don’t plan to hit sixes, try my best to get into good positions and try to time the ball. When the match-up is there, you try to execute your skills,” he said.
“I have never worked on my bat-speed, just blessed with incredible talent.”
Pooran said having wickets in hand allows the room to play big shots even after Powerplay (first six overs), and the batting-friendly track in Hyderabad helped in executing those shots.
“The wicket was beautiful. Looking at the games before, every time you come to Hyderabad, it’s big scores here. It was a good toss to win; if you don’t lose wickets in the powerplay, you can go hard,” said Pooran.
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