Dubai: Impressed with Shardul Thakur’s incredible performance former England captain Michael Vaughan lavished praise on Thakur, comparing him to the legendary Ian Botham,
who is regarded as one of the best all-rounder ever produced in world cricket. Vaughan believes it was MS Dhoni’s suggestion to draft Thakur in the final 15 and credits Thakur for making it happen.
Despite having a 15-man roster, the BCCI had announced three reserve players for the T20 World Cup. However, just days before the T20 World Cup began, the Indian all-rounder reserve a place, as he was promoted to the final 15 replacing Axar Patel in the Indian squad. The 30 year old was the highest wicket-taker for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2021 season, with 21 scalps, and has been in outstanding form for India with both bat and ball in the past year.
“Last week I was with Lord Botham and he is a true lord. Thakur is very similar to Ian Botham. He gets the ball in his hands and makes things happen. He did it in the Test series, he did it in the IPL. The mentor of the Indian T20 team is behind the stumps. He was captaining him. He was probably on the phone with Virat and Ravi talking about him, saying ‘come on’. He (Shardul) has that ability to make things happen,” Vaughan was quoted as saying to Cricbuzz.
Vaughan went into detail about Thakur’s strengths, describing how one of his strengths is his ability to deceive and fox batters with his variations. Over the years, the CSK all-rounder has developed a cunning knuckleball that has foxed many batsman. This, according to the former England skipper, makes Thakur a difficult bowler to get away with and he believes, Thakur can ‘make things happen’ in the marquee event.
“He must have a very good deception of pace because you watch him and it’s like ‘yeah, it’s pretty normal. But he has that deception like Ashwin. He bowls and it goes through quickly, bowls cross-seam and goes through quickly. He has that ability to surprise the batter and those subtle variations that we can’t pick up,” added Vaughan.
Virat Kohli-led India thrashed Australia with a convincing nine wickets on Wednesday in their second warm-up game.
