Shardul Thakur injury: What happened to Shardul Thakur? Who will replace Shardul Thakur in Lord’s Test vs England?

Shardul Thakur injury: The Indian fast bowler is an in likeliness of missing the second Test match against England at Lord’s.

India pacer Shardul Thakur has joined the list of injured players on the tour of England after being ruled out of the second Test match between England and India starting from tomorrow at Lord’s.

Thakur, 29, was included into the Playing XI for the first Test as a fourth specialist fast bowler. A handy customer with the bat in hand, Thakur was preferred ahead of Umesh Yadav for his knack of contributing across divisions.

While he scored 0 (6) in the first innings at Trent Bridge, Thakur was effective with the ball picking match figures of 26-4-78-4 which included wickets of Joe Root, Dan Lawrence and Jos Buttler.

Shardul Thakur injury

It was last night that Guardian had reported about Thakur’s hamstring niggle. While the Indian team management didn’t provide any official update on Thakur’s injury, captain Virat Kohli confirmed his absence for the match during a pre-match press conference. Kohli also mentioned that Thakur should recover from his left hamstring issue before the third Test in Headingley.

In Thakur’s absence, the Indian team management will have to ponder hard not just about his replacement but also about the overall combination as well.

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If India decide to persist with four pacers and Ravindra Jadeja as a lone spin-bowling option, they will practically have four bowlers with minimal batting skills as neither Ishant Sharma nor Umesh Yadav is known for their batting.

In such a scenario, the visitors might move back to their ICC World Test Championship final combination of playing three specialist fast bowlers and Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin as spinners who also have it in them to contribute with the bat.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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