Is Shardul Thakur best All-Rounder in India? His numbers say yes

With the ODI World Cup less than a month fans and experts around the globe were taken by surprise after the inclusion of pacer Shardul Thakur for both the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup, despite having three fast bowlers along with all-rounder, Hardik Pandya, who also bowls a decent quota of overs and supports the spinners from the other end. Shardul Thakur has earned his place in the squad with some scintillating performances in the last three to four years for India in the ODI formats.

He has been among the wickets for India since the ODI World Cup 2019 and he has got a knack for breaking the good going partnership with his slower deliveries. Thakur has picked 53 wickets in 34 innings at an average of 28.30 and has struck at 27.4, since the ODI World Cup 2019, the only Indian bowler with 50 plus wickets in the last three years. Not to forget, he is also handy with the bat who could change the course of the game in any situation. In 18 innings batted at number 8 Thakur has scored 215 runs and all those runs have come at the strike rate of 114.36. 

Here are some stats and numbers achieved by Shardul Thakur that impressed the selectors for considering him for ODI World Cup 2023:

53 -Shardul Thakur has picked up 53 wickets since the ODI World Cup 2019, the most number of wickets taken by an Indian bowler.

215 -Shardul Thakur has scored 215 runs in 18 innings for India, the most runs scored by an Indian batter while batting at number 8 or below for India. Deepak Chahar is next in the list with 137 runs.

39 -Shardul Thakur has picked 39 wickets in the middle overs since 2020, the second most number of wickets by Indian bowler since 2020 in ODIs. Only Kuldeep Yadav (40) is ahead of him in that period.

3 -Shardul Thakur is one among the three Indians to register a half-century for India while playing at number 8 or below since ODI World Cup 2019. Rohit Sharma and Deepak Chahar are the other two batters

9 -Shardul Thakur has taken three wickets or more in an Innings for a record 9 times since the ODI World Cup 2019, the most by an Indian bowler in that period. Mohammed Siraj is next in the list with 8 times.