Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra hailed Shardul Thakur’s spell after Lucknow Super Giants clinched a five-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad on Thursday.
After Rishabh Pant elected to field first, Thakur got the big wicket of in-form Abhishek Sharma with a short-pitched delivery. On the next ball, he dismissed the previous match centurion Ishan Kishan with a harmless delivery down the leg-side.
Thakur then accounted for Abhinav Manohar and Mohammed Shami towards the fag end. The right-arm medium pacer returned with impressive figures of 4-34 and thus played an instrumental role in restricting SRH to 190-9.
“Shardul Thakur – They were saying ‘Ek tha Thakur’, now they are saying ‘Thakur Zinda hai.’ Thakur sahab’s performance was incredible. He picked up two wickets in two overs in the first match, and here also, he first got Abhishek Sharma out and then Ishan Kishan for zero,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
The renowned commentator said he was slightly surprised when Thakur went unsold in the IPL 2025 auction.
“Of course, Ishan Kishan was unfortunate. You generally don’t get out down the leg side like that, but he dismissed Abhishek Sharma with a bouncer. He didn’t end there. Thakur picked up four wickets. I was slightly surprised when he wasn’t picked in the auction,” he observed.
Chopra hailed Shardul Thakur for performing consistently in the domestic circuit and then grabbing his chances with both hands.
“We had discussed that he was worth ₹2 crore for sure. In fact, he should have got more money. He has got that thing. Then he played well in SMAT (Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) and took the team ahead in the Ranji Trophy, and got an opportunity to play because Mohsin got injured. Bowled four over, took four wickets – I thought he was absolutely gold dust,” Chopra elaborated.
Speaking on SRH’s batting, the reputed commentator noted that the hosts kept backing an aggressive approach despite losing wickets at regular intervals.
“Travis Head played well until he was there. He got a life. Nicholas Pooran dropped a catch. However, he didn’t stop and kept hitting. There is another special thing about this team. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen and Aniket Verma came, and they kept hitting,” he said in the same video.
Chopra hailed Aniket Verma for scoring a blistering knock of 36 runs off just 13 balls.
“Aniket Verma is batting really well. He batted very well in the few balls he faced in the first match, and here he scored 36 runs off 13 balls, which included five sixes. This team’s philosophy is very different. They have underachieved based on their potential,” Chopra observed.
