3 Indian players who should be given a long rope ahead of the T20 World Cup

#2 Shardul Thakur

Thakur has been impressive with the new ball

One player who has progressed by leaps and bounds in the past few months is Shardul Thakur. At the start of the West Indies series he was seen as a backup for the injured Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. However, some clever bowling and newfound power hitting at the end of the innings have made Thakur a serious contender to make it to India’s World Cup squad.

The Mumbai player was earlier seen as a specialist new-ball bowler, having done well for Mumbai in four-day cricket. But Thakur has worked on his game, by adding some variety to his bowling while also immensely improving his batting. His cameos of 22* and 17* against Sri Lanka and West Indies respectively were crucial for India.

With Virat Kohli inclined to go in with six bowling options, Thakur could be the perfect player to bat at No. 8 after Hardik Pandya and Washington Sundar. In the months leading into the World Cup, it might not be a bad idea for Kohli to give more opportunities to Thakur to test his death bowling and batting in crunch situations.