India have registered a convincing win in the third ODI against Australia despite losing the series. However, they brought some changes in the squad and one of them was the inclusion of Shardul Thakur. While playing his first game, Mumbai speedster Shardul Thakur finished with the figures of 3-51.
However, his scalps included the in-form Steve Smith who had batted beautifully in the last two ODIs, smashing centuries in each game as well. Meanwhile, when he was asked about the dismissal, Shardul said he got ‘lucky’ to get the wicket.
“See, I feel sometimes that we get lucky. When we try to execute the plans, we wanted to keep them on the backfoot and win this game, we were planning to bowl at the stumps when Smith was batting, I got lucky that I strangled him down the legside, he is a top player, it was a huge wicket for us. Winning this game to carry the momentum in the T20I series was important,” he said in the post-match press conference.
He also said that he wanted to bowl in a straight line as Australia players have played lots of cuts and pull shots in the series.
“See, the important part was to stick to our lengths in this match. If you see the series, Australian batsmen have played pull and cut shots quite a bit, I just tried to keep them off those shots and I was trying to make them play in the straighter lines. This plan worked for me,” said Shardul Thakur.
The speedster further said that the team wanted to restrict Australia as David Warner wasn’t playing due to injury and they had to play with a new opening pair. However, India’s plan became successful too as Australia’s new opening pair failed to get the success like the old pair of David Warner and Aaron Finch. Notably, the duo added the century stands in the first two ODIs.
“See, definitely the grounds are big, the pitches have been good to bat on this series, as a bowler, you need to be smart in terms of your bowling plan and where you want the batsman to hit shots. The key is to execute the plans and it will definitely help in the end. Warner was not playing this game and it was an opportunity for our bowlers to put Australia on the backfoot. We were looking to win this game to carry forward the momentum in the T20I series,” concluded Shardul Thakur
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