IND vs AUS | Shardul Thakur provides a point of difference to India which I like, opines Tom Moody

After losing the first two matches in an embarrassing manner, team India made four changes to the playing XI to tinker with the composition of the team to get back on the winning track and all the four additions contributed immensely to India’s 13-run win in the final ODI. India left out Mayank Agarwal, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Navdeep Saini and replaced them with Shubman Gill, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, and Shardul Thakur. 

While Gill provided a good start to the team with his eye-pleasing 33, Kuldeep took the wicket of Cameron Green and ended with the figures of 1/57. Debutant, Natarajan had a pretty nice outing, barring the one 18-run at the death, to finish with the figures of 2/70. However, it was Thakur who stole the show with his clinical variations, picking up the important wickets of Steve Smith, Moises Henriques, and later Sean Abbott to end with the impressive figures of 3/51, helping his team defend the total successfully. 

Former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody opined that the 29-year-old quick adds a point of difference to the side and could be a crucial part of India’s ODI setup going forward.

“Thakur bowled really well. He provides a point of difference to that side which I quite like. I know that Saini played the first couple of games and they’re sort of earmarking him for the Test matches, but I think Thakur provides a real good point of difference in ODI cricket,” Moody said on ESPNCricinfo.

Impressive by the variation of Thakur, Moody called the pacer an ‘exciting package’ as he has various ways to trap the batsmen. 

“He’s got a good change of pace, he’s got the yorker, he can swing the ball as well which is important if there’s anything for offer in the air. He’s got the skillset to swing the ball. To me, he’s an exciting package because he has many ways to get wickets,” he added.