Australia legend Mark Waugh launches scathing attack on Shardul Thakur, calls him 'bits and pieces' cricketer during second ODI

Team India have been in good form in the ongoing ODI series at home against Australia. The batters have done a fine job so far but all the experts and the fans alike are wondering about the firepower the hosts have in the middle order. Therefore, a curious case of Shardul Thakur came to the fore as he failed to replicate his good form which was displayed during the recently concluded Asia Cup 2023.

Notably, in the ongoing series, Thakur failed to come good in the first ODI as he remained wicketless in Mohali. Moreover, he also proved quite expensive during his bowling spell. Thereafter in the second ODI which took place on Sunday, September 24, in Indore, India blasted their way to a mammoth total of 399 runs after Australia invited them to bat first. However, as rain played possums in the middle of the game, as per the DLS method, the visitors faced a stiff task of chasing 317 runs in 33 overs. As a result, Prasidh Krishna took advantage of the situation and found some swing in the early overs of the Australian innings.

This meant that the pacer took two wickets in quick succession to put Australia on the back foot. At one stage, the visitors were reeling at 9/2 on the board. Now, in such a dominating position, any team want their bowlers to keep up the ante and force the opposition to make more mistakes and gift wickets rather cheaply.

Albeit, this did not happen when Shardul Thakur came to bowl for Team India. He once again failed to maintain the pressure on the Aussie top-order batters in the second ODI of the series. This led the great Australia legend, Mark Waugh to launch a scathing attack on the all-rounder by calling him a 'bits and pieces' cricketer.

#MarkWaugh - "Shardul Thakur is a bits and pieces cricketer".#TeamIndia - yet he is a full fledged cricketer 😴😴#IndvAus #IndvsAus #KLRahul #SuryakumarYadav #ShubmanGill #AusvsInd #AUSvIND #ShreyasIyer pic.twitter.com/4iKJPifNxV

— DaebakAnkita💃 (@DaebakankitaF) September 24, 2023

Sanjay Manjrekar had once called Ravindra Jadeja 'bits and pieces' cricketer

Interestingly enough, the renowned commentator and the former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, too, had once launched a similar verbal attack on another India all-rounder in the form of Ravindra Jadeja. He too had called the southpaw a 'bits and pieces' cricketer, back in the year 2019. However, his perspective on Jadeja was slightly different.

Meanwhile, speaking of Shardul Thakur's career so far, the willy player is a part of Team India's 15-member strong squad for the upcoming ODI World Cup 2023. Notably, the grand event will kickstart from October 5, in India. Besides, Thakur made his debut for the national side in 2017 and has featured in 68 games in the limited-overs formats so far. However, the Mumbai-based all-rounder who is often deemed as the 'Golden arm' for Team India for getting breakthroughs on a consistent basis has had more impact in red-ball cricket.

When it comes to Test cricket, Shardul Thakur has been part of some most memorable wins of the Indian side. The major win was the series victory against Australia right in their own backyard. Furthermore, he also played a vital role in a series win in England as well. Thakur has had a short but impressive career of 10 Test matches for Team India so far.