Shardul Thakur opens up about his shift to Pune Supergiant from Kings XI Punjab

In 2016, Shardul Thakur was picked in the Test squad to tour West Indies, following his amazing season with Mumbai in the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy, in which he topped the wicket-takers charts and also took a spell of 5/26 in the finals against Saurashtra. Despite being in good form, Thakur was released by his IPL team, Kings XI Punjab, midway through the 2016 season. He, however, went ahead and played for the Rising Pune Supergiants where he flourished, something that has been instrumental in ensuring his place in the Indian team.

The Palghar Express 

The Mumbai seamer, popularly known as the ‘Palghar Express’ in Mumbai cricketing circles, (as he hails from Palghar in suburban Mumbai) played just one game in three seasons for the Punjab team (from 2014 to 2016) after which he was removed and bought by the Rising Pune Supergiant. He didn’t get to make his debut in the West Indies, but following his stellar performances for the Pune franchise in IPL 10, he was called up to the ODI squad against Sri Lanka and had a decent outing.

In an exclusive interview with the Indian Express, Thakur was asked to recall his journey from being removed by the Punjab outfit, to performing exceptionally well for the Pune franchise, the 26-year-old said,

“When I was sent back by Kings XI Punjab midway, it didn’t sit well with me. When they said they wanted to release me to Pune (Rising Supergiants) it took me 15 minutes to say ok. It was for the best. I’ve realized that you can achieve a lot in the Ranji Trophy and nobody watches you, but even one good performance in the IPL and everyone’s talking about you. I remember meeting Pravin Amre sir during that IPL I sat out and he told me that whenever my chance will come I had to be ready. So that’s what I did. I worked really hard on perfecting my yorker, slower ones and also kept visualizing various scenarios from the bench.”