Indian skipper Virat Kohli was surprised at the post-match presentation of the third ODI against England that the pacer Shardul Thakur was not adjusted the 'Player of the Match' and Bhuvneshwar Kumar the 'Player of the Series' as both the top awards went to the Englishmen.
All-rounder Sam Curran with his valiant effort with the bat scored an unbeaten 95 and almost pulled off a miraculous win for his side, was given the 'Man of the Match' award, while opener Jonny Bairstow was given the 'Player of the Series' for playing knocks of 94 and 124 in the first two games, despite failing in the final and scoring 219 runs in the three games in total.
Asked about Thakur's emergence as the go-to bowler for him whenever the team needs a breakthrough, skipper Kohli said, "I'm quite surprised that he wasn't the man of the match today, to be honest. Four wickets for 65-odd in 10 overs and scoring 30 off 20 balls and Bhuvi again a big contender for man of the series as well picking up six wickets at an economy of under six on these kind of pitches. Fo me it's a no-brainer.
"I think these two guys were the difference during those middle-overs and with the new ball as well. I think they were outstanding and a lot of credit goes to them for the series win," Kohli added.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan too shared the sentiment as Kohli as he took to Twitter to express his surprise of Bhuvneshwar Kumar not getting the 'Man of the Series' award.
Thakur was one of the consistent wicket-takers for the side throughout the limited-overs leg as his wicket-taking ability helped India turned four out of the eight games in their favour as he provided them with the crucial breakthroughs and broke important partnerships. In the final game, he took wickets of Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid and scored 30 runs off just 21 balls with the bat.
On the other hand, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was one of the stand-outs with the ball for his side as he took six wickets in the three games at an economy of just 4.65 in the games where 330 was a par score.
India won the series 2-1 as they pulled off a thriller in the final ODI by just 7 runs to complete the 3-0 treble against England across formats.
