Xtra Time Web Desk: Team India all-rounder Shardul Thakur has made a startling revelation about The Oval wicket saying it was under-prepared on Day 1. According to Shardul, the wicket was very different from the one they played on back in 2021. India had won that game by 157 runs in September 2021 with Thakur getting a fifty in each innings.
Shardul played a gritty knock of 51 runs and was involved in a 109-run partnership with Ajinkya Rahane to see India score a total of some respectability on Day 3 of the ongoing ICC WTC Final.
“The pitch is surely different. Last time we played the pitch was doing something and everyone knows if there is cloud cover in England the ball moves around,” Shardul said.
He added, “As the game went forward last time and the team started taking rollers it became flat. But this time it was not anything like that. It was under prepared I felt going in to the game. Like we saw yesterday and today it was a bit up and down.”
From one end, the ball took off from length and the Australian pacers exploited that effectively.
According to Shardul, there is an area from where the ball is coming up, there is a little grass around the crack and the length is such that batsmen can’t leave the deliveries easily. One has to play, commit because many balls kept down and that is an area of good length.
“So that’s the area where the batsmen can’t immediately see and leave the ball. You have to play it. And if it bounces from there – then good luck for the batsmen. It was bouncing from the other end too – but from a bit behind, so the batsmen were getting time to adjust,” said Thakur.
Shardul asserted that the team remain very much in the game despite trailing Australia by 296 runs.