Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], March 28 : Shardul Thakur revealed the moment he started to get back into the Indian Premier League (IPL) mindset after finding no buyers in last year's mega auction in Jeddah.
With a base price of Rs 2 crore, Shardul didn't see any paddle go up when his name popped up and eventually went unsold for the IPL 2025. He started preparing for his upcoming stint with Essex in the County Championship.
But his plans changed when the Lucknow Super Giants approached him first as an injury replacement. Shardul joined the LSG camp as a replacement for the injured Mohsin Khan. On December 31, Mohsin tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee during the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
The seasoned all-rounder is now the leading wicket-taker in the ongoing edition of the cash-rich league, with six scalps in two games, an average of 8.83, and a similar economy rate.
He collected the purple cap after returning with figures of 4/34 in LSG's five-wicket triumph over Sunrisers Hyderabad. Shardul revealed that other franchises approached him, but the first call came from LSG mentor Zaheer Khan.
"See, I feel all these things keep happening in the cricket. It was just one bad day in the auction, I didn't get picked by any of the franchises. But unfortunately, there were a few injuries here and there, and there were a few inquiries about whether I could join the camp," Thakur told the host broadcaster during the innings break after assisting LSG in restricting SRH to 190/9.
"But LSG was the one who approached me first, so I had to give them preference, and even when I was closely working with Zaheer Khan, he gave me a call. And it was always on the cards, I had to accept it.
And like I always say, skills are always there, talent is always there. It's just about the form and bad days, you have to go through it in cricket," he added.
Shardul's heroics were recognised at the end, and he was adjudged the Player of the Match for his display with the ball.
The 33-year-old revealed that he learned of his potential return to the IPL during the Ranji Trophy knockout phase. During that phase, he exhibited stellar form in the competition, taking 35 wickets in nine games and making invaluable contributions with the bat down the order.
"While we were playing Ranji Trophy knockouts, Zaheer Khan made a call, and he said we are looking at you as a potential replacement. So [he said] don't switch yourself off and keep your plans ready. Probably, if you come in as a replacement, you will start. That was the day I started to get into the IPL mindset again, and the hopes came back," he said.
After his recent inclusion in the IPL, Shardul will no longer be available for Essex and will stay with LSG until the end of their campaign. After sealing his career-best IPL figures against SRH, Shardul reached the 100-wicket milestone in the competition. As he savours the personal milestone, winning the game remains the most important thing for him.
"It's always good to be on the score sheet, but yeah, winning the game is important for me. I'll keep doing something or the other, that's my attitude. I don't much look at the wicket column or the runs column, but to create an impact in the game, to create match-winning performances, that's what I look at," he said.
Shardul made early inroads by removing the hard-hitting young southpaws Abhishek Sharma (6) and Ishan Kishan (0) in his second over. He went on to remove Abhinav Manohar and Mohammed Shami in the death overs of the first innings.
"I think they [SRH batters] are coming hard at bowlers, and why not bowlers go hard at them? So the talk was around what the plan should be, and we collectively said let's go hard at them, let's take our chances," he said.
"If we get early wickets, then we are in the game because they have been scoring heavily on this ground on flat pitches, and probably we had to take our chances, and today, I think initially it fell in our pockets," he added.