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“Whenever there were clouds of despair, Lord came and shone” – Aakash Chopra on Shardul Thakur
By SMCS - Sep 7, 2021 5:00 pm
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Aakash Chopra has selected Shardul Thakur as his Player of the Match for the fourth Test between India and England. He has scored a total of 117 runs across the two innings of the Oval Test alongside taking three wickets at crucial moments to make a match-defining contribution as well.

Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra shared that Shardul Thakur bailed the Indian team out of trouble on several occasions before too. He elaborated: “My Player of the Match is Lord Thakur. Whenever there were clouds of despair, Lord came and shone. You are 127/7 and he scored a half-century on the first day and takes the team to 191.”

He said that after smashing a half-century in India’s first innings, Shardul Thakur sent the well-set Ollie Pope in the dugout which certainly changed the fate of the game. Pope inside-edged a delivery onto his stumps after scoring 81 runs and the dismissal played a big role as well.

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He said: “The opposition team is batting decently well. Ollie Pope is the batsman who has scored the most runs for them, who dismisses him – Lord Thakur. When you stumble a little on the fourth day, when Kohli, Rahane and Jaddu get out, then Lord comes and saves India again.”

shardul thakur
Shardul Thakur

He again shared that Shadul Thakur’s vital dismissals of Rory Burns and Joe Root in the second innings turned the table. While Burns got out after giving a catch to Rishabh Pant behind the stumps just after scoring a fifty, Joe Root’s dismissal ended all hopes of England as well.

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“And after that, when there was no player dismissed and England had reached 100 runs, who gets the wicket – Lord takes it. Lord gets Rory Burns out and then dismisses Joe Root. What else is he supposed to do? It is slightly unfair that bowlers get the empathy but my Player of the Match is Lord Thakur because his stamp is there on this match from the first to the last day,” Aakash Chopra concluded.