India’s 34-year-old pace-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur believes he was under-utilised by head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy last year. Thakur, the captain of Mumbai team in domestic cricket, still has the desire to represent India again.
On the England tour, Thakur played in two Tests. He bowled a total of 27 overs in the two Tests that went the distance. After two single-digit scores in Leeds Test, he scored a crucial 41-run knock in Manchester. He feels that he could’ve played more games in the season.
"When I played in England, I don't think I was utilised properly. In batting, yes, it was my mistake that I played a loose shot in Leeds. But in Manchester, I batted beautifully, I would say, because it was overcast, the ball was swinging, and there was one length from where the ball was hardly bouncing. I survived that spell and India still put up a very, very strong total in the first innings. Then the pitch became flat and we were also able to save the game," Thakur said as quoted by Cricbuzz.
"So it's not that I didn't make any contribution when I last played for India. But yes, I think I deserved a few more opportunities. I would say it was more about being under-bowled and being used in the wrong phases. There were some calculation errors, I would say."
Can Thakur make a comeback to Tests?
Thakur hasn't played a Test since July 2025. Since then, India have played two Tests against West Indies and two against South Africa. He is unlikely to get a chance on the Sri Lanka tour where spin plays an important role. However, he would hope to make a comeback for New Zealand tour where conditions are spin-friendly. He may get the nod especially because of Nitish Kumar Reddy’s quadriceps injury. Reddy may recover but there will be a question mark over whether he can take the workload of bowling long spells in the Test format. However, he may find Auqib Nabi as his competition. Currently, a part of India A’s red-ball tour of Sri Lanka, Nabi has decent numbers in first-class cricket batting down the order.
Thakur’s Test numbers
After making his debut in 2018, Thakur has played just 13 Tests. He has 33 wickets, averaging just over 31. He has a seven-fer to his name which came against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2022.
No white-ball return for Thakur?
Despite Hardik Pandya and Reddy getting ruled out of T20I series in UK due to their respective injuries, Thakur wasn’t considered for the shortest format as his young Mumbai teammate Suryansh Shedge made his debut.
The Mumbai captain had an ordinary Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. Playing for Mumbai Indians (MI), he bagged 12 wickets at 22.50 apiece from seven innings but his economy rate of 12.27 runs per over was far from impressive. Also, he scored just 24 runs from three opportunities to bat at a strike rate of 80.
With Pandya set to return after rehabilitation at Centre of Excellence, Bengaluru, Thakur’s ODI return is unlikely as well. His last ODI and T20I appearances were in 2023 and 2022 respectively.