Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain, praised Indian all-rounder Shardul Thakur for his outstanding performance against England in the fourth Test at Kennington Oval.
Thakur was India’s first choice throughout the game, despite missing the second Test at Lord’s due to a hamstring injury. He also missed the third Test. The Mumbai batsman blasted two fifties, the first of which provided the team a modest total and the second of which lifted the team to a big 367-run lead.
On the final day, Thakur took two wickets: first, he broke the crucial partnership between Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed by nicking the former with an angled delivery in his first over, and then he bowled England captain Joe Root to clinch India’s victory.
Thakur was an effective player, not an appealing player, according to Inzamam.
“Thakur is not an attractive player, but I felt that he is an effective player. He can provide the teams with wickets and runs whenever required. His first innings fifty was crucial, without that India would have only scored 130 and making a comeback from that would have been very difficult. Even the fifty in the second innings was crucial and he also took Root’s wicket on the final day as well. Whenever the game changed, Thakur had something to with it,” Inzamam said on his YouTube channel.
Umesh Yadav (3/60), Shardul Thakur (2/22), Jasprit Bumrah (2/27) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/50) bowled India to another big victory in an overseas Test for India. Inzamam claimed that Indian bowlers used a lot of energy when they bowled.
“The biggest quality that I felt was that even when they were bowling at the end of the day, the energy level was very high. Siraj did not take many wickets in this Test but whenever he was called by Virat Kohli to bowl, the energy was there. Bumrah was tremendous. Winning and losing is part of the game but when you play cricket like this, wins automatically start coming to you,” Inzamam said.