Shardul Thakur is in a happy space. He returned to the Indian Test team after a year-and-a-half, for the England tour, earlier this year. He was made Mumbai captain, succeeding Ajinkya Rahane, and then he was traded to Mumbai Indians from Lucknow Super Giants for the next edition of the Indian Premier League — the seventh team he will represent after Punjab Kings, Chennai Super Kings, Rising Pune Supergiant, Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Lucknow Super Giants. MI will be the fifth different team Thakur will play for in as many seasons.
“Coming to Mumbai Indians, I can only say that everyone likes to play at their home venue and on their home ground. This has been pending for a long time, but is possible only when the time is right. And I think that time has finally come,” said Thakur, 34, after leading Mumbai to their third win of this Ranji Trophy season, an innings and 222-run victory over Puducherry, at Wankhede on Wednesday.
Dominant show
The win took Mumbai’s points tally to 24, topping Group D before the Ranji season takes a break with the sixth round resuming on January 22. Meanwhile, the domestic season continues with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s (November 26-December 18) and the Vijay Hazare Trophy (December 24-January 18) one-dayers. Mumbai needed just 51 minutes on the fourth and final day to claim the remaining four Puducherry wickets in the second innings. Thakur and Deshpande struck thrice in four overs before the last pair, Jayant Yadav and Abin Mathew, stretched the innings a bit. Puducherry, 231-6 overnight, were bowled out for 276.
Inspired by captains
Going by the way Thakur has led so far, captaincy seems to come naturally to him. In his 14 seasons of representative cricket, having played 102 first-class matches (including 13 Tests), 178 T20s (including 105 games for six different IPL teams), 25 T20Is, and 118 one-dayers (including 47 ODIs), Thakur has closely observed the leadership qualities of various captains. Mahendra Singh Dhoni tops the list of skippers he admires most. “I’ve played the most of my matches under Mahi bhai and probably an equal number of international games under Rohit [Sharma] and Virat [Kohli]. Mahi bhai is No. 1 for me though I try and take a leaf out of every captain’s book, looking for the positives in their captaincy. So far, it’s coming off well,” said Thakur.
Brief scores
Mumbai 630-5d beat Puducherry 132 & 276 (A Khan 86, S Addhatrao 54, N Kangayan 42, M Kale 35, J Yadav 32; T Deshpande 3-32, S Thakur 2-24, S Mulani 2-67) by an innings and 222 runs