'Lord Shardul Thakur at work' - Twitter impressed with the pacer's bowling against England

India have dominated the opening day of the first Test against England at Nottingham with the ball. The only thing that went hosts’ way was the toss as they opted to bat first. Team India, as they often do, surprised many with their selection as the visitors played four quick bowlers including Shardul Thakur and left out their premier spinner Ravi Ashwin for Ravindra Jadeja.

No wonder Ashwin getting dropped was shocking, but not many expected Thakur to play ahead of the likes of Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. But his batting ability got him the nod ahead of the regulars in the squad. The Mumbai cricketer had proved his mettle with the bat in the Brisbane Test earlier this year against Australia scoring vital 67 runs and also picking seven wickets in the game.

Ahead of the opening Test, Virat Kohli had also praised him calling him one of the huge prospects for India. However, many weren’t expecting the India skipper to stay true to his comments and right away play him in the first Test. And Shardul Thakur has certainly impressed already with his bowling.

Shardul Thakur gets prized scalp of Joe Root

Shardul was the last of the four fast bowlers to be introduced into the attack earlier in the day. Like every other bowler, he was tight in his lengths and made sure that there were no easy runs on offer. He swung the ball considerably as well and was rewarded for some good bowling in the final session of the day.

England skipper Joe Root was looking good having scored a fine half-century as well. But Thakur pitched one up to him and the ball swung only a little bit to find Root plumb in front of the stumps. It was a crucial breakthrough as the England captain could’ve taken his team to a competitive total. Shardul Thakur didn’t stop here and went on to dismiss Ollie Robinson for a duck in the same over.

England’s lower order is known to score a lot of runs and Robinson had impressed against New Zealand in the debut series in June. But Thakur had other ideas and eked a false shot out of him early in the innings to leave England reeling. The fans were really impressed with his bowling as Shardul Thakur once again made his presence felt among some really good bowlers in the line-up.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: