The ICC T20 World Cup is around the corner and all the 16 teams slated to participate in the multi-national tournament are undergoing final stretches of preparation in order to enhance their chances of clinching the coveted title. Team India, who won the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2007, has dealt with multiple injuries to their star players ahead of the World Cup as Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Deepak Chahar (probably) ruled out already. Despite injuries to premier pacemen, Shardul Thakur was not considered for selection even in reserves and the right-arm pacer has finally opened up about being overlooked.
Thakur has come to terms with the 'big setback' of missing the T20 World Cup cut but the Mumbai medium-pace bowling all-rounder is focused on doing well in upcoming games as he still has a ‘lot of cricket’ left in him.
Thakur did play the T20 format for India during the time Hardik Pandya was doing his long and intense rehabilitation program but a poor economy rate of 9.15 has basically pushed him out of the national team's radar.
"Of course, it's a big setback. Every player dreams to play in the World Cup, not just play but win it as well," Thakur said on the eve of the second ODI against South Africa.
"It's okay I'm not selected this time. But there's still a lot of cricket left and also there's the ODI World Cup next year. My focus will be to do well in whatever matches I play and make winning contributions," the Mumbai man, who is just two short of completing 100 international wickets across formats, said.
India have suffered another big blow to their T20 World Cup campaign when injury-prone Deepak Chahar, who was in the reserves, was ruled out of the ongoing series with his chances to go to Australia seeming remote.
"Injuries are part and parcel of the game, at some point, someone is going to get injured. We should not take it by heart honestly. There is a lot more cricket to come," he said.
Asked if he fancies his chances, the 30-year-old said: "If injuries happen then anyone can come at any point of time. As of now, your responsibility is to be ready whenever and wherever you're asked to play. I will be mentally ready if I'm given a call-up. That's all in my hands."
Want to make a difference with bat lower down
Thakur further said he is honing his batting skills to make the difference lower down the order, something that was on display in a 66-ball-93 run partnership with Sanju Samson in the first ODI.
Chasing a stiff 250 in 40 overs, India were 51/4 but Sanju Samson (86 not out) and Thakur (33) revived their hopes only to miss out by nine runs.
"If you see teams who have done very well at international level, their batting line-up has been quite deep. Like Australia for instance, they have the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc coming at 8 or 9. Even for that matter England," he said.
"I've been focusing on my batting for quite a long time now. obviously batting at no 7 or the one coming at no 9, if they can contribute it's always great. That gives you a cushion.
"We also can have our batting lineup deep and make the difference -- the difference of 15-20 runs that can be crucial in winning the match, especially in white ball cricket," he added.
Unfair to criticise only Indian bowlers
Team India's bowling may have copped criticism of late but Thakur said it's unfair as the rival bowlers too are also leaking runs.
"It's not fair to criticise only the Indians, even their bowlers are taken to the cleaners. We won the T20I series, but they also were slammed," Thakur said.
"I think before questioning the consistency we should see how the wicket was, the conditions. Sometimes in an ODI match more than 350-runs are scored so in that case every bowler got hit.
"There has been no one-sided match for India, be it on a batting or a bowling friendly pitch, most have been competitive. We have won most matches and showed consistency," he added.
(With PTI inputs)
