Shardul Thakur has been living a dream in the limited-overs leg of the England series as he has become the unofficial partnership breaker for Team India. He started showing the colours from the fourth match of the T20I series and since then he hasn't stopped his wicket-taking run.
He took two wickets in one over in three consecutive matches in the fourth and fifth matches of the T20I series and in the first ODI to turn the game on its head. Whether a partnership has to be broken or whenever the team is in desperate need of wickets in the latter stages of the match, Thakur has become skipper Virat Kohli's go-to man.
In the third ODI, he didn't take two wickets in the same over, but in consecutive overs to break the back of England's middle-order. Thakur had already removed England's stand-in-skipper Jos Buttler, but the duo of Liam Livingstone and Dawid Malan had stitched a 60-run partnership and the visitors were back in the game. India could come back into the game only through wickets.
Thakur in his returning spell first removed the right-hander Livingstone on a full toss as the English batsman hit straight towards the bowler and he didn't do any mistake in grabbing the ball. In the next over, he accounted for the dangerous Dawid Malan after the left-hander notched-up his maiden fifty in the ODIs.
Thakur's third wicket meant England were six down and still needed around 130 runs to win the game. As soon as Thakur was amongst the wickets again, 'Lord Shardul Thakur' started trending on Twitter as from cricketers to fans, the pacer was applauded for his consistency in breaking partnerships, especially in the last few games.
Here are some of the reactions:
