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Former India head coach Anil Kumble is baffled by Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) captain Nitish Rana’s tactics against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on May 8. KKR won the last-ball thriller, thanks to Andre Russell and Rinku Singh’s late surge but Kumble is not happy with Rana ignoring Shardul Thakur, the bowler. Thakur did not bowl a single over for KKR as Rana trusted uncapped pacers Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana to do the job with the new ball and towards the end.
"He probably would be marking his run up at the Oval. He doesn't get an over which is very strange. He's a quality bowler. Yes he gives runs but he has the knack to pick wickets as well," said Kumble on Jio Cinema.
Kumble’s criticism is not out of line and Harshit and Vaibhav ended up conceding 36 runs combined in last two overs. In the penultimate over, Vaibhav conceded 15 runs whereas Harshit was taken to the cleaners in the last over as he conceded 21 runs.
Thakur did not bowl a single over. He came in to bat at no.7 on the final ball of KKR’s run chase only to be at the non-striker’s end.
In eight matches Thakur has played, he has bowled a total of 14.5 overs. In the previous game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), he conceded just 23 runs and picked up the wickets of opener Abhishek Sharma and a rampant wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen.
However, Thakur has been expensive with the ball conceding 10.79 runs per over. Before taking two wickets against SRH, he had taken only two wickets in the season. He did not get to bowl against Gujarat Titans (GT) where KKR lost in a close contest. So far, he has bowled his quota of four overs only once.
In the previous season, he took 15 wickets from 14 games at an average of 31.53 and an economy rate of 9.79 runs per over.
The 31-year-old is India’s squad for World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 final against Australia.
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