Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pace bowler Shardul Thakur slammed commentators for their constant criticism of his performance. Shardul didn’t find a team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega-auction at first, but LSG picked him up as a replacement after Mohsin Khan was ruled out of the tournament and since then, he has been doing wonders. He is now the second-highest wicket-taker of the tournament and the most successful among pacers.

“I’ve always believed that, as a bowling unit, we’ve bowled well throughout the season. A lot of times in commentary, there’s criticism — they try to be hard on the bowlers. But you have to understand that cricket is moving in a certain direction where 200+ scores are becoming more common,” Shardul Thakur said in the post-match press conference.

ALSO READ: “In the next T20 World Cup in India, he’ll be number one bowler” – Mohammad Kaif on Varun Chakravarthy

“Credit to us that we’ve defended scores on two occasions when we batted first. We put up a good score, the pitch became better for batting, and even with drastic changes, we managed to defend — one game by 10 runs, one by 4 runs in Kolkata. So it was about holding our nerve till the end and believing in ourselves that we could win the game, provided we got an important wicket or bowled a key over,” he again shared.

“And like you said, criticism will always be there — especially from commentators. It’s easy to sit in a studio and comment on someone’s bowling, but they don’t see the real picture out there on the ground. I’m sure they should look at their own stats before criticising anyone,” Shardul Thakur concluded.

In six matches, Shardul Thakur has taken 11 wickets which came at an economy rate of 10.38. With their win over the Gujarat Titans, LSG placed among the top four with eight points and a net run rate of +0.162 as well.