{"id":290206,"date":"2025-07-25T09:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T09:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/290206\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T09:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T09:18:13","slug":"ind-vs-eng-4th-test-giving-bowling-is-captains-call-not-in-my-hands-shardul-thakur-puts-the-ball-in-shubman-gills-court-on-bowling-strategy-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/290206\/","title":{"rendered":"IND vs ENG 4th Test: ‘Giving bowling is captain’s call, not in my hands’ – Shardul Thakur puts the ball in Shubman Gill’s court on bowling strategy | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"INDShardul Thakur (Image credit – Sahil Malhotra\/TimesofIndia.com) TimesofIndia.com in Manchester: On a day dominated for long stretches by England\u2019s opening pair, it was the courageous return of Rishabh Pant that truly defined the narrative of Day 2 in the fourth Test at Old Trafford. Battling a fractured toe sustained on Day 1, Pant walked in after the fall of Shardul Thakur<\/a> to a rousing ovation from the Manchester crowd. Clearly in pain, the wicketkeeper-batter stood tall to score a gutsy 54 off 75 balls, helping India stretch their total to 358. \u201cIt was always our plan\u2026 (for Rishabh Pant to bat). The medical team did a great job but he was still in a lot of pain,\u201d Shardul Thakur told reporters in the press conference after the day\u2019s play on Thursday. Pant\u2019s knock was a symbol of defiance after India had earlier lost Ravindra Jadeja in the early stages of Day 2. Thakur (41) and Washington Sundar (27) stitched a useful stand before England, led by Ben Stokes\u2019 5\/72, wrapped up the innings post-lunch.Thakur, who bowled just five overs for 35 runs, pointed out that bowling decisions rested with the captain. \u201cGiving bowling is the captain\u2019s call. Not in my hands. The captain decides when to give them. I could have bowled two overs more today but that is the captain\u2019s call. It is difficult to find rhythm but I try and use my experience.\u201d His blunt response on the same reflected the trust in the skipper and the calls he made during the 4th Test, up until the end of day’s play on Thursday.On Pant\u2019s fitness, Thakur added: \u201cIt will be his call. He didn\u2019t come in the bus today because he was in the hospital. He wasn\u2019t at the ground when we were warming up. It is a fracture \u2014 the news is already out.\u201d England\u2019s reply began on a dominant note, with openers Zak Crawley (84) and Ben Duckett (94) racing to a 166-run stand in just 32.4 overs. India finally broke through when Jadeja had Crawley caught behind, and Anshul Kamboj dismissed Duckett to deny him a century, which was also the 24-year-old\u2019s maiden Test wicket.<\/p>\n

Poll<\/p>\n

Do you think Rishabh Pant should have played despite his fractured toe?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever runs we got on the board was a good effort, ball was doing a lot,\u201d Thakur said, defending the team\u2019s total. However, he admitted the bowlers could have done better. \u201cWe could have been better with the new ball. Runs just kept flowing. It wasn\u2019t difficult for bowlers\u2026 we could have been patient. We have to evaluate which deliveries to stick by.\u201d England ended the day at 225 for two, trailing India by 133 runs, with Ollie Pope (20) and Joe Root (11) unbeaten. However, it was Pant\u2019s fighting spirit that set the tone, giving India hope heading into Day 3 of this crucial encounter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shardul Thakur (Image credit – Sahil Malhotra\/TimesofIndia.com) TimesofIndia.com in Manchester: On a day dominated for long stretches by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[1406,108124,108119,50335,108123,84209,108122,108121,34926,79,108120,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-290206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-ind-4th-test","10":"tag-ind-eng","11":"tag-ind-vs-eng","12":"tag-rishabh-pant-batting","13":"tag-shardul-thakur","14":"tag-shardul-thakur-gill","15":"tag-shardul-thakur-press-conference","16":"tag-shubman-gill","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-thakur","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}