Cheteshwar Pujara analysed Shardul Thakur’s spell against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the ongoing IPL 2025. The all-rounder clinched a four-wicket haul in the match as Lucknow Super Giants won the match by five wickets.
Shardul Thakur went unsold in the IPL 2025 mega-auction. He signed for Essex to play county cricket before LSG signed him as Mohsin Khan’s replacement. In his first game, the all-rounder picked up two wickets against Delhi Capitals and in the game versus Sunrisers Hyderabad, the 33-year-old wreaked havoc, picking up a four-wicket haul. Courtesy of his brilliant spell, the Pat Cummins-led side posted 190 runs on board and ended up suffering a five-wicket defeat.
After the game, Cheteshwar Pujara analysed Thakur’s gameplan against the Hyderabad openers stating that he was looking for swing and mixed it up with occasional yorkers. He noted that the batters were left confused and Thakur took advantage of it and picked up the wicket f Abhishek Sharma, who departed for six runs.
“One is, he is looking to swing the ball. With the new ball, he is getting that shape into the left-handers and he’s trying to mix it up with the yorkers. If you look at the previous deliveries, which Abhishek or Travis Head faced, he tried bowling yorkers – it was low full-tosses – but as a batter you are thinking, is it going to be a yorker or a back-of-a-length ball,” Cheteshwar Pujara said of Thakur’s bowling plan on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show.
“And suddenly, he bowls a bumper, which could surprise a batter. And then you have less fraction of a second to execute you shot, and that’s why I think Abhishek was late on his shot,” he added.
With six wickets to his name at the moment, Shardul is the leading wicket-taker in IPL 2025. His teammate Nicholas Pooran is the Orange Cap holder, with 145 runs to his name. Lucknow in the meantime have won and lost one each and are second on the IPL 2025 points table.
