Shardul Thakur chamado estrela de “Bits & Items”, inclusão no 4º teste “não vai a favor da Índia”

Former India cricket team star Navjot Singh Sidhu criticized the team’s decision to include Shardul Thakur in the playing XI for the IND vs ENG 4th Test. The Mumbai all-rounder replaced Nitish Kumar Reddy in the Manchester Test after the latter was ruled out of the remainder of the series due to a knee injury. Following the end of Day 1, Sidhu questioned the Indian team’s rationale to add Shardul to their line-up and its purpose.

After Jadeja, Shardul dubbed as “bits & pieces player”

In a video on his YouTube channel, Sidhu seemingly dubbed Shardul as a bits and pieces cricketer, noting that such players couldn’t win the team matches. Years ago, ex-India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar had referred to Ravindra Jadeja with the same tag but was silenced later via his all-round performances. Sidhu claimed that even if Thakur scored a half-century while coming out to bat at number 8, India needed a specialist and not a bits and pieces cricketer.

“One area of problem, even if Shardul makes a fifty, at that number eight position, bits-and-pieces cricketers do well in one-day cricket, but in Test cricket, you always need specialists. If you could bring Shardul the bowler at number eight, then I would agree this is the right selection. You do not bowl him enough and then in order to increase the batting you compromise with your bowling. Bits-and-pieces cricketers, I don’t think will ever win you games abroad,” Sidhu claimed.

Sidhu went on to claim that there was no use of Shardul at number 8, in terms of batting, if the top seven couldn’t score runs. He claimed that the decision to include Thakur in the XI was a compromise that won’t go in India’s favour.

“What is the purpose here? The guy at number eight, do you want him to give you five wickets or batting depth? If you want batting depth and that would win you games, then would those 200 runs (193 at Lord’s) not have been chased? If seven can’t do it, eight also won’t. I have been repeating this point time and again. I feel this is again a compromise, and I feel it will not go in favour of India,” Sidhu added.