Shardul Thakur against Australia
Medium pacer Shardul Thakur, who returned impressive figures of three for 51 in 10 overs to help India beat Australia by 13 runs in the third and final ODI, said not getting a consistent run of opportunities at the international level does not bother him.
The 29-year-old, whose haul of wickets included Steve Smith, has played only 12 One-day Internationals since making his debut over three years back in August, 2017. He has also featured in one Test and 15 T20 Internationals in the period.
A part of the playing eleven in the last three ODIs India played prior to this series in New Zealand, Thakur was not picked for the first two games at the Sydney Cricket Ground as India bowlers were put under the pump.
However, he showed ability when given an opportunity at the Manuka Oval in the final game of the series, bowling a good line and length and using variations to pick three wickets and dent the Aussie chase.
"Selection is not in my hand. If I get a chance to play for India, it is important that I try to help the team win. My mindset is that. When I play, I play to win. I don't think about all those things - like I am getting to play only one game or that I am a replacement of an injured player. It doesn't matter. I focus on winning games like every other player," said Thakur who was redrafted into the India ODI squad in December last year after a one-year gap as India struggled to fill Bhuvneshwar Kumar's shoes.
Interestingly, despite performing well in the last ODI, the tour might be over for him as he is not part of the T20I squad.
"The team was selected long back. Since I wasn't part of the T20I series, I wasn't thinking about it at all. But we are looking at this as a six-match limited-overs series. The momentum we carry from this is going to be huge going into the T20 series," he added.
