Veteran Team India pace bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur promised to maximize every opportunity to represent the country, especially in an ICC event final. India will take on Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Oval, starting on Wednesday, June 7. Shardul was also part of the Indian squad for the last WTC final in 2021 as well but he did not feature in the playing XI as India lost to New Zealand by eight wickets in Southampton as well. While his selection in the playing XI this time will depend upon the conditions at the Oval, Shardul Thakur is honoured to be part of such a mega event as well.

“I feel that ICC event finals especially, you don’t get to play them everywhere each and every year, so it’s, for a few players or somebody like me, a once-in-a-lifetime moment. All that I want is to make it count,” Shardul Thakur said to ICC.”It’s always a special moment when you’re representing your country – especially India, when there’s a billion people out there who dream of playing for the nation and only the best 15 have been chosen to represent the country. Especially being involved in this Final, from 7 June onwards in England for the World Test Championship, it feels really special, I’m honoured.”

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Shardul Thakur has claimed 27 wickets at an average of 24.44 in Tests, including his career-best bowling figures of 7/61 against South Africa in the second Test at Johanessburg in January 2022. He helped the team in dire straits at 177/6 and hit a brilliant 57 off 36 deliveries to take India to a good total of 191 as well.

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“It’s always good to remember your previous performances on a particular ground, but every game is a fresh start. It’s different opponents this time around, but yeah it’s always good to take motivation from what you’ve done in the past on a particular ground. I think England is challenging because the weather here is a bit funny. When the sun’s out it is good for batting, when it’s overcast it’s good for bowling, so the toss hardly matters, it’s all about the cloud cover. Obviously, the pitch also plays an important role, but we’ve seen in the past that whenever there’s cloud cover the ball suddenly starts swinging and you can’t really predict how much the ball is going to move, so that’s one of the biggest challenges that a batter faces,” Shardul Thakur concluded.