India vs England: Ben Stokes hilariously checks Shardul Thakur's bat after getting hit for a six

In the past few months, Shardul Thakur has shown how much of an improved batter he has become. In the third and final ODI between India and England, Thakur surprised Ben Stokes with one of his shots. The incident even led the England all-rounder to ask Thakur to show him his bat. 

The incident happened in the 45th over of the Indian innings. Having lost some wickets, India were expecting Krunal Pandya and Shardul Thakur to build a partnership to get to a good score. Ben Stokes bowled a slower ball, which was on the off stump. The batsman came down the pitch, got close to the ball, and hit it straight down the ground over the long-off boundary. 

This was Thakur’s third six during the same innings. As the Mumbai player was coming back to the striker’s end, Stokes grabbed his bat to check the weight of it. Both the players shared a smile about the incident. The right-arm pacer ended up with a cameo of 30 runs from 21 balls, with one four and three sixes. 

Here’s the video:

pic.twitter.com/4YvrD8Vh0C

— Simran (@CowCorner9) March 28, 2021

India post 329 in the series decider

His knock ensured India got past 300. However, his untimely fall of wicket forced a mini-collapse and India got bowled out for 329 in 48.2 overs. The last three wickets in fact fell for just one run. India would think that this score isn’t completely winnable, as England had successfully chased down 336 runs in the previous match with 39 balls to spare. 

Earlier in the day, most of the Indian batsmen got off to a good start but failed to convert it into a big one. Having lost the toss for the third time in this series, India started well with a 103-run opening stand between Rohit Sharma (37 runs off 37 balls) and Shikhar Dhawan (67 runs off 56 balls.)

After the wickets of the openers along with Virat Kohli and KL Rahul fell in quick succession, Rishabh Pant (78 runs off 62 balls) and Hardik Pandya (64 runs off 44 balls) kept things going on for the hosts. But, when these two got out India couldn’t manage to reach a total in excess of 350, which looked gettable when Pant and Pandya were batting.