Team India all-rounder Shardul Thakur is hopeful about their chances in the ongoing World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in London. He expressed that if they manage one good partnership even 450 runs can be chased down. The summit clash has so far been dominated by the Australian team.
Earlier in the match, Australia put on a mammoth 469 runs on the board. Travis Head and Steve Smith slammed centuries to put them in the driver’s seat. In response, Team India was bowled out for 296 runs. Ajinkya Rahane was the leading run-scorer in the innings with 89 runs. His partnerships with Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur have kept the Indian team alive in the match.
At the end of day three, Australia has a lead of 296 runs with six wickets in hand. All-rounder Shardul Thakur feels Team India can even chase down 450 runs or more if they get a good partnership. Shardul Thakur also slammed a fifty in the match. Speaking at the press conference after Day 3, the all-rounder said,
“Well, cricket is a funny game. You can never say what is the right total and in this one-off game, especially ICC finals, you never know, I mean, who can handle the pressure better out there, one good partnership when you can even chase down 450 or maybe more than that.”
We would like to be optimistic: Shardul Thakur
All-rounder Shardul Thakur further pointed out that England chased down a huge total against India last year in a one-off Test. England had chased down 378 runs against India at Birmingham, to equal series 2-2. Shardul expressed that India will be optimistic heading into the fourth day of the World Test Championship final.
“Last year England chased 400 here and they did not lose too many wickets. So that’s a positive sign for us. Whatever they put up on the board, it’s too early to make any predictions. We see a lot of times in Test cricket that the game changes within an hour. So yes, we like to be optimistic tomorrow going on the field. And yeah, we’ll take it on from there,” said Shardul Thakur.
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