Shardul Thakur defends his bowling: England’s position looks strong against India in the fourth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The credit for this goes to England’s opening pair of Jack Crowley and Ben Duckett, who shared a 166-run partnership in an aggressive manner. Because of this, England is now just 133 runs behind India’s score and has eight wickets left.
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Earlier, Team India was all out after scoring 358 runs in their first innings. The Indian bowlers looked helpless in front of the English batsmen and conceded runs in ODI style. This also raised questions on the bowlers, but all-rounder Shardul Thakur has defended himself, as well as indirectly put captain Shubman Gill in the dock for a special thing.
In fact, India had to wait for 32 overs to take England’s first wicket. During this, Jack Crowley and Ben Duckett were playing in a very aggressive manner. No Indian bowler seemed to be successful against them. However, then Ravindra Jadeja broke this pair by dismissing Crowley and debutant Anshul Kamboj also dismissed Duckett. At the same time, Shardul Thakur was made to bowl only five overs and he conceded 35 runs.
Shardul Thakur said – "Giving bowling is captain’s call. Not in my hands. Captain decides when to give. I could have bowled two overs more today but that is captain’s call. Difficult to find rhythm but I try and use my experience". (Sahil Malhotra). pic.twitter.com/TkZ1yRuBA3
— Tanuj (@ImTanujSingh) July 25, 2025
Captain held responsible for bowling decisions
After the second day’s play of the Manchester Test ended, Shardul Thakur came to the press conference and said,
“It is the captain’s decision to give the ball. It is not in my hands. The captain decides when to give. I could have bowled two more overs today, but it is the captain’s decision. It is difficult to find rhythm, but I try to use my experience.”
Shardul Thakur’s statement seems to indicate that perhaps Indian captain Shubman Gill did not have much confidence in him. That is why he showed more dependence on his key fast bowlers. Talking about Shardul, he did well in batting and played an important innings of 41 runs. Shardul got a chance in the fourth Test due to Nitish Reddy being ruled out of the remaining two matches due to injury.
