India veteran all-rounder Shardul Thakur believes that if they push themselves, then the side could win the recently concluded five-Test match series of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 against England. The five-Test match series between India and England ended 2-2 draw.
Shardul, who featured in two Test matches of the series, said that a set of young and inexperienced players punched well above their weight to draw the rubber 2-2. India travelled to England with a new Test captain and young players, as veterans announced their Test retirement before the series.
Batting duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirement in May before the England Tests and legendary spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also announced his retirement in Australia during the five-Test match series of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2025. After Rohit's retirement, the BCCI announced Shubman Gill as his sucessor to lead India in whites and Rishabh Pant was appointed as his deputy.
"There were quite a few chances where if we pushed ourselves, we could have literally won the series. I'm not joking because the kind of cricket that we played was good, but I would say the side was fairly inexperienced.
"A lot of experienced guys had moved on. For a young side to put up that kind of a performance, it was incredible, I would say," Shardul Thakur said after the Duleep Trophy semifinal where he led West Zone against Central Zone.
Thakur said India's intensely fought series was unique because all matches went into the last session of the fifth day.
"Every pitch was different on different venues. It was one of the unique series where the cricket was played over five days in all the Test matches. None of the Tests got over in four days or four and a half days.
"It really went to the last session on the fifth day. As a cricketer, you also got to be ready that in a five Test match series, it could happen that you're playing on all five days and there's 25 days of cricket, which is rare. The competition was really neck to neck," he said.