Is Shardul Thakur an All Rounder in Cricket?

It has taken Shardul Thakur 47 innings across 141 T20s to score a maiden half-century in the format. Thakur, who has three Test and one ODI half-century to his name, has managed to cross the 50-run mark in the ninth year of his T20 career.

In what was only his second match for Kolkata Knight Riders, his fifth IPL franchise across 10 seasons, Thakur scored a match-winning 68* (29) with the help of nine fours and three sixes at a time when his team was struggling at 89/5 in the 12th over.

Thakur, who batted at a strike rate of 234.48, was lucky to hit his first ball for a boundary via an inside edge off Royal Challengers Bangalore spinner Karn Sharma. In the next over, Thakur hit two fours and a six off pacer Akash Deep to follow it with boundaries in each of the remaining overs barring the penultimate one where he didn’t get to play a ball.

Interestingly, Thakur’s previous career-best T20 performance had come against Knight Riders in the last season when he had scored 29* (11) with the help of a four and three sixes. A commonality between both the innings was him batting at No. 7.

If he continues to bat in the same manner, it wouldn’t be too long before he is further promoted in the batting order irrespective of the format. Readers must note that the only other time when Thakur has batted above No. 7 in T20s was at No. 4 for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2021.

Is Shardul Thakur an All Rounder in Cricket?

Thakur, who averages 23 across six T20I innings (including three not outs), averages <20 in both Test and ODI formats. Although there has never been a particular criteria with respect to average for a bowler to be categorized as an all-rounder, one feels Thakur needs to be more consistent to qualify as an archetype all-format bowling all-rounder.

Thakur, who has excelled with the bat in hand in IPL 2018 Qualifier 1, India-West Indies Cuttack ODI, Australia-India Brisbane Test, India-England Pune ODI and England-India The Oval Test in the past, doesn’t have the best of numbers for an archetype bowling all-rounder because of lack of opportunities.

Keeping in mind his knack of making things happen, Thakur has proved his mettle across divisions on a cricket field multiple times. While the above mentioned batting performances doesn’t let one doubt his calibre as a batter, the 31-year old player will be looking for a consistent run in the national team post the IPL in an ICC Cricket World Cup year.

With India scheduled to participate in ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 final at The Oval, Thakur is highly likely to play as a fourth pace-bowling option. Not that there aren’t any better pacers than him in the country, Thakur gets a go outside of India primarily because of his batting skills. Hence, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Thakur is heading towards the right path to become an all-rounder in the future.

Shardul Thakur Batting Record in International Cricket (Updated On August 24, 2023)

Format	Matches	Runs	Highest	Average	SR	100	50
Test	10	305	67	20.33	63.4	0	4
ODI	38	315	50*	18.52	106.06	0	1
T20I	25	69	22*	23	181.57	0	0