India skipper Rohit Sharma confirms of having Shardul Thakur in his plans for the upcoming World Test Championship Finals

The Indian team is looking to wrap up the series with a win in Indore against the Australian so that they can book their slot in the finals of the World Test Championship against the Kangaroos. Speaking in that context captain Rohit Sharma feels pace bowling all rounder Shardul Thakur is definitely in the mix of things. The speedster recently tied the knot and hence Sharma does not know his fitness status or how many overs he has bowled. But he is surely open to that discussion if they win the third test in Indore.

Shardul Thakur is not a member of the Indian team for the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy. But he is in the scheme of things for the ODI series against the Aussies. Thakur was part of the rescheduled Birmingham Test last year and considering the WTF final will be held in England, he can provide a lot of value with the ball.

Sharma definitely sees a chance of preparing for the WTC final in the Ahmedabad test if they wrap up the series in Indore. He said, “There is definitely a possibility of that. We have already spoken about it. We need to get the guys ready for it as well. The important one is Shardul Thakur because he comes into the plans for us. I don’t know how ready he is, knowing that he just got married yesterday. How much overs he has bowled. If we get the result that we want, we might think of doing something different in Ahmedabad.”

India needs to win atleast one of the next two test matches and that will be enough for them to book a slot in the finals of the World Test Championship. Rohit Sharma feels that it is a massive achievement for the team to reach that stage once again. He also highlights that playing in home conditions does not mean that the conditions are easy. He stated that the conditions are challenging and it is not easy for batters to come out and pile up runs.

“It will be a great achievement. (In) the cycle after the last World Test Championship (WTC), the way we have played in certain conditions has been remarkable. Yes, these are our home conditions, but these are some challenging conditions that we are playing in. It is not easy for batters to come out and keep scoring runs consistently,” he added.

However amid all these discussions, he wanted everyone to know that there’s still a long time left ahead of the World Test Championship. After the Border Gavaskar Trophy, the two teams will battle it out in an ODI series followed by a two months long IPL.

“We know that we need to cross that final hurdle. For that we need to win the next game as well. So the focus is on this Test – how we can win this game and not look too far ahead,” Sharma concluded.