Forged in fire: The hardships Shardul Thakur had to master to become a cricketer have sharpened his ability to perform when the chips are down. Tough situations and tougher conditions, he says, bring the best out of him. | Photo credit: Emmanual Yogini
Call him Lord, or call him Beefy
He is quite cool
His first nickname in cricket
After all is the Bull!
One measure of a cult-hero’s popularity is the number of nicknames he spawns, and Shardul Thakur has several. Excited to return to the yellow den — with another Ranji title in the bag and a maiden First Class hundred to his name — Shardul offers us a sneak peek into his persona. Excerpts:
What would Shardul Thakur have been had he not been a cricketer?
I have never thought about it, to be honest. Ours was a typical middle-class family but both my parents were sportspersons along with my uncle, so there was a culture of cricket at home. Just like any other child growing up in a small town in India, I used to play cricket in school. When I was selected for my school, my father asked me what I wanted to become and I told him I want to bat like Sachin Tendulkar. That’s what every kid in India felt like back then. Only when I was 19 or 20, these questions crossed my mind. And I couldn’t think of anything other than cricket.
So when did it actually occur to you that you had it in you to make it big?
Perhaps only around the time I was picked for the Ranji Trophy. Coming from a small town, all I wanted was some stability in my life, with a 9-to-5 job. Back then, corporate jobs were available in Mumbai for cricketers. I knew that if I did well, an organisation would want to give me a job to play for them. It would help me make ends meet. I was playing for a job, when I started off. It was certainly not easy to travel 110 to 120 km one way to play cricket. I come from a humble background. My father was a farmer. I didn’t know anything beyond cricket. Only after some of the coaches who helped me along — especially Dinesh Lad sir and Vilas Godbole sir — and the seniors in the Mumbai dressing room made me realise I had the potential to excel did I realise it.
You have a knack of delivering against the odds. How did you develop and cultivate it?
I think it is in-born but I wasn’t aware of it. I had to find it. Perhaps it was sometime during that phase in Covid when I sat down and thought about my game, I discovered that I actually craved challenges. I like to excel in tough situations, tougher conditions. That’s what brings the best out of me. I am ready when I am facing the best of the best. I may not be right up there in terms of skills but in my mind, I am confident of seeing the team through when pushed against the wall.
I think the kind of upbringing I had has a lot to do with it. Travelling from Palghar to south Mumbai to play cricket; waking up at 3.30 a.m. and reaching home not before 8.30 in the night to play one match was challenging as a kid. I could sleep only four to five hours and despite that, I was expected to perform in every department. That made me realise that it was a very tough life. The family didn’t have the money to provide me with luxuries. Like no way were they in a position to tell me: here are the car keys and you have a driver, go by car, rest on the way. That my parents had just enough money for my basic cricket equipment and local train tickets was in itself a big deal. It was all hand-to-mouth back then. There have been times that I have lived on one or two vada-pavs through an entire day. I have had that kind of life, taking on different challenges, so the challenges on the field of cricket, I try and relate them to my challenges growing up.
Do you think that you have to constantly keep proving yourself in international cricket?
Somewhere down the line, yes. If you see, between the 2019 and 2023 ODI World Cups, I was India’s highest wicket-taker [among seamers], right? That’s a fact. But still I had to prove myself to be selected in the team and if I couldn’t do well in an odd game, there were high chances that I would go out. I understand that. Competition is always good but all I am saying is that you should be fair to everyone. Shouldn’t be like one fellow has one bad game and he is dropped, whereas another fellow is persisted with despite having two or five bad games.
Anyone can have a bad game but until and unless I get a proper chance, five to eight games, I don’t think I should be judged on one failure. When I bowl, I am expected to bowl like Bumrah. When I bat, I am expected to do some magic. I can’t do it every time but if I do it four-five times in 10 games, I think that’s wonderful. I saw an interview of Rahul Dravid where he said that he failed most of the times when he batted in international cricket and succeeded only in a few, and he is a legend of the game. So why not us? Why am I judged based on one bad game? Everyone is bound to have it. I am not asking for any sympathy, I am asking for my right.
It still hurts: The ‘nightmare’ of losing the World Cup final is ‘etched’ in Shardul’s mind ‘forever’. ‘Time heals a lot of things in life but this will take years to heal,’ he says. | Photo credit: Getty Images
With your personality, was it slightly easier to overcome the World Cup final disappointment?
It’s never easy. That day has been etched in our minds forever. It’s a nightmare. To do so well for 10 games and then have that one game — the final — it hurts a lot. But what can we do or say about it! There was a lot of cricket straight after that and god has given me the ability to stay focused. Even now, whatever games we have, we just have to try and give our best. It will hurt for years and years, probably all our lives, but at some point, you have to move on. But that doesn’t mean you forget about it. Time heals a lot of things in life but this will take years to heal.
What went wrong with Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2023?
Nothing. I really enjoyed my time with KKR. This year they wanted some changes, they had their reasons so before putting me back in the auction, [CEO] Venky Mysore called me up and told me: “You are someone who can walk into any team’s starting XI, so it really hurts us that we are letting you go.” And that’s perfectly fine. Sometimes things work out for you, sometimes they don’t. That’s life. You have to take it in your stride.
Back in yellow: Shardul feels ‘extremely fortunate’ that CSK went for him ‘yet again’ at the auction. He says it’s a team that’s ‘extremely dear to my heart’. | Photo credit: Vivek Bendre
Could you have asked for a better team to land in at the auction?
Absolutely not. Extremely fortunate that the Chennai Super Kings yet again went for me. It’s a team that’s extremely dear to my heart. Whenever I am with CSK, it feels like I am absolutely at home. It’s a great opportunity to showcase your time and come back to life.
