India’s Shardul Thakur in motion throughout Day three of the check match between India and Australia within the ICC World Take a look at Championship (WTC) ultimate, at The Oval in London on Friday.
| Picture Credit score: ANI
India all-rounder Shardul Thakur has referred to as The Oval pitch under-prepared, saying it is vitally completely different from the floor they performed on again in 2021.
India had gained that recreation by 157 runs in September 2021 with Thakur getting a fifty in every innings.
Thakur copped two nasty blows on Friday however managed to attain a vital 51. He and Ajinkya Rahane shared a beneficial 109-run stand to take India to 296 in reply to Australia’s first-innings complete of 469 within the World Take a look at Championship ultimate.
“The pitch is definitely completely different. Final time we performed the pitch was doing one thing and everybody is aware of if there may be cloud cowl in England the ball strikes round.
“As the sport went ahead final time and the staff began taking rollers it grew to become flat. However this time it was not something like that. It was under-prepared I felt getting in to the sport. Like we noticed yesterday and at this time it was a bit up and down,” Shardul mentioned.
From one specific finish, the ball took off from size and the Australian pacers exploited that successfully.
“If we see yesterday’s play additionally, pitch modified a bit of. Ball was arduous and bouncing from odd size. With six wickets down on the board, not too many runs, below stress, sure you’d say the hardest hour although I’ve performed handful of recreation however felt like welcome to Take a look at cricket.
“There may be an space from the place the ball is developing, there’s a little grass across the crack and the size is such that batsmen cannot go away the deliveries simply. You need to play, commit as a result of we noticed at this time many balls saved down and I imply that’s an space of fine size, and I imply, that space is at a very good size, a bit of in need of size.
“In order that’s the realm the place the batsmen cannot instantly see and go away the ball. You need to play it. And if it bounces from there – then good luck for the batsmen. It was bouncing from the opposite finish too – however from a bit behind, so the batsmen had been getting time to regulate,” mentioned Thakur.
Thakur asserted that India stay very a lot within the recreation regardless of trailing Australia by 296 runs.
“Cricket is a humorous recreation. You may by no means say what’s the proper complete, particularly in an ICC ultimate. One good partnership and you may chase down 450 or possibly greater than that. We noticed final yr England chased 400 right here and they didn’t lose too many wickets.”
He was all reward for Rahane who made a gritty 89 in his comeback Take a look at.
“Ajinkya is among the high gamers on this planet. He has scored runs in England Australia and South Africa. It didn’t appear that he was batting badly although he wasn’t getting the runs [before being dropped]. Even at this time he was utilizing all his expertise of batting in English circumstances.”